Starlink regains higher speeds in Ukraine after Trump-Musk phone call
Starshield, the military satellite communications system, returned to higher operating speeds in Ukraine on Thursday after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX. US and Ukrainian officials said Trump asked Musk during the call to lift restrictions on service speeds, and Ukrainian officials said the system had not regained its full operational capacity. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump objected to speeds having been capped at about 100 miles per hour, which impeded some Ukrainian military operations, and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal announced an investigation into the drop in Starlink's performance in Ukraine without prior notice.
Why it matters: The episode places commercial satellite communications inside the defence-technology and military supply chain on which Ukraine's forces depend, and shows a US administration contesting who controls that dependency.