Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say
Two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter said the order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, and that leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed. The officials did not specify who in the White House made the decision or who was responsible for implementing it. Ukrainian officials said military-grade Starlink receptors stopped working when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with drones that rely on them for onboard guidance, and a person in Ukraine's Defence Ministry said on Oct 15 that the receptors were then working in motion only at speeds of up to 160kmh.
Why it matters: The restrictions fall within the briefing's US–Ukraine relations theme, because a battlefield communications service owned by the US government and operated by a US company has become an instrument of Washington's leverage over Kyiv amid US pressure to halt strikes on Russian refineries.