The new reporting raises a direct question about the administration's public account: if Musk proposed the restrictions and Trump agreed, why did the president deny that either was responsible?
🛰 🇺🇲 🇺🇦 Musk proposed Starlink restrictions to Trump - and Trump agreed, sources tell The Telegraph
Hours after President Donald Trump denied personally ordering restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield communications network, and said he did not believe Elon Musk was responsible, The Telegraph published an investigation pointing to both men.
⚠️ According to the British newspaper, four sources familiar with the discussions said Musk personally approached Trump with a proposal to impose speed limits on the satellite service used by Ukrainian forces. One source said Trump agreed to the proposal, clearing the way for the Pentagon to implement the restrictions.
The account adds a detail to Reuters' earlier investigation, which traced the instruction to slow Ukraine's military-grade Starshield service to inside the White House but could not identify who made the decision.
Asked whether he or Musk had ordered the restrictions, Trump said: “I don't know if it was anybody, because it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon.”
The Telegraph's findings have not been independently verified, and the precise decision-making chain remains unresolved.
The restrictions disrupted Ukrainian drone operations, including interceptions of Russian jet-powered Shaheds, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said Friday that service capabilities were being restored but had not fully recovered.
Nine U.S. senators have separately called for a Pentagon inspector general investigation into who authorized the restrictions and whether American personnel in Ukraine were placed at risk.
The new reporting raises a direct question about the administration's public account: if Musk proposed the restrictions and Trump agreed, why did the president deny that either was responsible?