US senators seek investigation into Ukraine Starlink disruptions as Trump denies ordering limits

A bipartisan group of US senators called on Friday, 16 October, for an urgent investigation into reported disruptions to SpaceX's Starlink network in Ukraine. The request follows Ukrainian complaints that limits on satellite connectivity hampered military operations, while President Donald Trump denies that he ordered restrictions.

The senators' letter to the US Defense Department inspector general asks whether the department or its contractors caused the restrictions, the BBC reported. Led by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the cross-party group expressed ‘grave concern’ about reported speed curbs between 12 and 14 October.

How the restrictions affected Ukraine

The senators said the reported restrictions degraded Ukraine's ability to defend against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure, according to the BBC. Their letter also raised concerns about reported disruptions to intelligence-sharing and threat warnings, including accounts of personnel unable to reach designated bunkers during air raids. Those effects are allegations cited in the letter, rather than findings by the inspector general.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Brussels on Friday that service restoration was underway, but speeds had not fully returned to their previous level, the BBC reported. The investigation request and Trump's denial follow earlier reports of the disruptions and Zelenskyy's remarks in London, covered in NewsJaws' earlier report on Ukraine's Starlink access.

Who ordered the Starshield slowdown?

Reuters reported, in a story republished by Rappler, that two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter said an order to limit Starshield came from inside the White House. They said Defense Department leaders received a message that the service for Ukraine's military needed to be slowed. The officials did not identify who made the decision or implemented the order.

A senior US official told Reuters that ‘no such request was ever made by the president’; the White House did not answer whether another administration official made one. Trump separately denied on Friday that he had ordered the restrictions, CNBC reported. The senators are asking the inspector general to establish the cause amid those conflicting accounts.

Starshield is SpaceX's military-grade service for government and national-security customers and uses the Starlink satellite constellation as its backbone, Reuters reported. The Pentagon is its biggest customer. That relationship makes the reported slowdown consequential for Ukrainian forces that rely on satellite connectivity for battlefield communications and drone operations.