Elon Musk, through a SpaceX executive, ordered a 70% throttling of the military‑grade Starlink service known as Starshield on May 28, 2026, after a discussion with President Donald Trump. The reduction directly limited the bandwidth available to Ukrainian drone operators, cutting the number of sorties that could reach Russian targets.
Trump and Musk had a call shortly after the slowdown became public, during which Trump also lifted sanctions on Russian diesel to ease fuel costs. Trump told Kyiv to pause attacks on Russian refineries and urged the Ukrainian military to shift tactics. Musk reiterated that the use of Starshield was at the discretion of the U.S. president.
Ukrainian air‑defence commanders reported a 70% drop in successful drone strikes, with many missions aborted due to insufficient bandwidth. The loss of real‑time data has hampered both strike accuracy and the coordination of air‑defence assets.
A White House briefing with President Zelenskiy is scheduled for June 5 to address the operational impact, while Congress is set to hold a hearing on June 12 to scrutinise the decision.
A small family near Kharkiv, who had relied on Starlink for emergency communications, now faces isolation as their home network falters.