Musk: US military decides Starshield limits, not SpaceX or Starlink

American billionaire Elon Musk has said that the Starshield system is owned and controlled by the US government, and that restrictions on the service are decided by the American military and ultimately by President Donald Trump. Musk wrote this on the social network X after Ukraine complained about limits on satellite communication services.

The Starlink satellite network, he said, is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. It is limited to civilian purposes and defense and cannot be used for offensive military operations.

Ukraine’s complaint about the outage

Musk posted a few hours after Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that overnight SpaceX had restricted some Starlink services in the country. According to him, this disrupted combat operations because the Ukrainian army had not been told about the restriction in advance. He added that it affected the “Starshield military services package”.

A news agency noted the difference between the two services. Starlink is SpaceX’s commercial satellite internet service, while Starshield is a military version developed for the Pentagon. Musk insists the services are separate, but according to the agency, in many cases they rely on the same underlying satellite technology.

Starshield is a SpaceX division that builds satellite systems for the Pentagon for military and intelligence purposes. Starshield’s secure communications use advanced encryption and specialized terminals, but run on Starlink as their backbone network. Besides secure communications, the military service can also offer users Earth observation and the integration of sensors and other equipment.

Trump’s pressure on Kyiv

Ukraine’s complaint comes as the Trump administration is pressuring Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries so that more diesel can reach world markets. According to the American press, expensive fuel has fueled inflation and worsened the Republicans’ prospects ahead of the November congressional elections.

Last Friday, after a phone call with Vladimir Putin, Trump unexpectedly announced that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the American and global markets, with deliveries to grow in the coming months. This drew criticism from Democrats and many officials from EU and NATO countries that have supported Ukraine for years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the deal a sign of weakness and financial help for the aggressor.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz