Trump claims Musk restored Starshield access, but Ukrainians say restrictions still in place

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US President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine’s access to a military-grade version of his Starlink internet service, called Starshield, but Ukrainian officials have said restrictions remain in place that are complicating Kyiv’s war effort.

Trump declined to say whether he’d personally requested the Starshield restoration from Musk, saying, “Whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn’t make any difference.”

“I guess the bottom line is he put it back,” he told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

But those restrictions remain in place despite the comments from the Trump administration, Ukrainian officials said on Friday morning.

For more than a week, the restrictions have disrupted any military ordnance moving at high speeds – hindering interceptor drones in defending against Russian attacks and upending Ukrainian military operations in many areas of the front line, Ukrainian officials have said.

“At this time, we are not observing any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” said Serhiy Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky . “There are isolated cases where Starlink may operate slightly faster than the restrictions allow, but this is likely due to the SpaceX algorithm or specific usage conditions, rather than a lifting of the restrictions.”

Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry source told CNN on Friday morning that “there is currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted” and “instances of signal loss are still being observed” for any military ordnance travelling above 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour).

“There are definitely speed limits; nothing has changed yet, at least from what I can see here,” a Ukrainian Armed Forces officer told CNN. “It makes coordination difficult; sometimes there are interruptions. The connection drops out for 10 to 15 seconds.”

“We lost a lot of assets, much more than usual,” the officer added, saying the restrictions have affected reconnaissance drones and drones with Starlink-equipped systems on board.

A third source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday afternoon that speeds are not unlimited, and any restored access is “clearly not enough to intercept jet powered drones” launched by Russia.

Ukraine is waiting for information and clarification from the US side about the situation and there is no response yet, the source said.

Trump and his some of his top officials had denied making the call to throttle Ukraine’s use of the Starshield service, without offering any clear explanation for what had actually happened. Earlier this week, Trump said he was not involved.

Musk also denied taking unilateral action, pointing the fingers toward the Trump administration. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he said in a social media post last week.

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American newspapers, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, are reporting that Trump called Musk last week to request he restore Ukraine’s full access to the satellite communications network.

On Thursday, Trump declined to answer questions about a Wall Street Journal report that said he had directly asked Musk to restore service for Ukraine.

“I don’t want to comment one way or the other, but my relationship with Elon is a very good one,” the US President said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.

安娜·莫尼梅克/盖蒂图片社

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周四声称，埃隆·马斯克已经恢复了乌克兰对其星链互联网服务（名为“星盾”）的军用级版本进行访问，但乌克兰官员表示，限制仍然存在，这使基辅的战争努力变得更加复杂。

特朗普拒绝透露他是否亲自向马斯克要求恢复“星盾”计划，他说：“是我打电话还是其他人打电话，都无关紧要。”

“我想最终的结果是他把它放回去了，”他周四在白宫告诉记者。

但乌克兰官员周五上午表示，尽管特朗普政府发表了上述言论，这些限制措施仍然有效。

乌克兰官员表示，一周多以来，这些限制措施扰乱了任何高速运输的军用弹药，阻碍了拦截无人机防御俄罗斯的攻击，并扰乱了乌克兰在许多前线地区的军事行动。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基的顾问谢尔盖·别斯克列斯特诺夫表示：“目前，我们没有观察到星链限制有任何解除的迹象。虽然存在一些星链运行速度略高于限制允许值的个别情况，但这很可能是由于SpaceX的算法或特定使用条件造成的，而非限制解除所致。”

德米特罗·斯莫连科/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

乌克兰国防部消息人士周五上午告诉 CNN，“目前还没有确认限制措施是否已经解除”，并且对于任何飞行速度超过每小时 100 英里（161 公里）的军用弹药，“仍然会出现信号丢失的情况”。

一位乌克兰武装部队军官告诉CNN：“速度限制肯定存在；至少就我目前所见，情况还没有任何改变。这使得协调工作变得困难；有时会出现中断。连接会断开10到15秒。”

“我们损失了很多资产，比平时多得多，”该官员补充说，并表示这些限制措施影响了侦察无人机和搭载星链系统的无人机。

周四下午，一位熟悉情况的第三位消息人士告诉 CNN，网速并非无限，任何恢复的访问权限“显然不足以拦截俄罗斯发射的喷气式无人机”。

消息人士称，乌克兰正在等待美方就局势提供信息和澄清，但目前尚未收到任何回应。

特朗普及其一些高级官员否认曾下令限制乌克兰使用“星盾”安全服务，但并未就实际发生的事情给出任何明确解释。本周早些时候，特朗普表示他并未参与其中。

马斯克否认采取单方面行动，并将矛头指向特朗普政府。他上周在社交媒体上发帖称：“任何对速度或使用的限制都由美国军方决定，最终由美国总统决定。”

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包括《纽约时报》和《华尔街日报》在内的美国报纸报道称，特朗普上周致电马斯克，要求他恢复乌克兰对卫星通信网络的全面访问权限。

周四，特朗普拒绝回答有关《华尔街日报》报道的问题，该报道称他曾直接要求马斯克恢复乌克兰的电信服务。

“我不想对此发表任何评论，但我与埃隆的关系非常好，”美国总统说。

这是一则正在更新的新闻。

CNN的詹妮弗·汉斯勒和维多利亚·布滕科对本报道亦有贡献。