What the restrictions have done to Ukraine's defence

Ukraine's Starlink Ukraine access through Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade version of Starlink, has been limited, and Ukrainian officials say the effect on the battlefield has been direct. According to those officials, the restrictions have rendered many of the drones Kyiv uses to strike behind the frontlines inoperable, and have hampered the air defence systems that stop Russian attacks.

After Trump said on Thursday that the service was running again at full speed, a European official speaking to the Associated Press denied that it was fully functioning.

A Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that following Trump's comments the satellite service was still capped at 161km/hr, crippling air defences and limiting mid-range strikes.

Who says what: the blame game

The dispute over who is responsible for limiting Ukraine's Starshield access has drawn in the White House, the State Department, members of Congress, the vice-president and Musk himself, each pointing in a different direction.

• Trump initially denied any responsibility for the changes, telling reporters last Friday: "I don't know if it was anybody, but it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon."
• US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that neither the president nor anyone in the US system had requested any changes to the system, calling that the one thing he could state with certainty.
• Rubio also said the president "has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr Musk", calling SpaceX a private company.
• Musk wrote on X last week that the Starshield systems were "owned and controlled by the US government", and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately the president.
• Vice-president JD Vance defended Musk on Thursday, arguing the billionaire had no interest in being drawn into a war between two state actors unless the United States government was effectively directing him.
• Senator John Cornyn, a Republican in his final weeks as US senator for Texas, said he did not believe Musk would have acted "without at least the acquiescence of the White House".

Rubio's assertion that the decisions rest with Musk and his company sits uneasily beside Musk's own account, in which final authority over any limits runs through the US military to the president - and beside Cornyn's view that the White House must at least have acquiesced.

What the Wall Street Journal reported

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk made the order to slow down Starshield, though its sources disagreed over whether this was done in concert with Trump.

On Thursday, the same paper reported that Trump had asked Musk to restore the service. Trump later told reporters the system was "back", and declined to say whether he had spoken to Musk - but suggested the power to limit the service lay with the SpaceX CEO, saying: "I guess the bottom line, he put it back."

The reporting and the public statements point in opposite directions: the Journal has Musk ordering the slowdown and Trump requesting the restoration, while the administration insists no one in the US system asked for any changes at all.

Broader picture: strikes and unanswered questions

The row over satellite access is unfolding as civilian casualties in Ukraine surge, and as both sides press on with heavy long-range attacks. Yesterday, Russia bombarded Kyiv with ballistic missiles while Ukraine sent swarms of drones to Moscow.

Local authorities reported overnight explosions in Lutsk, near the Polish border, and in the central Poltava and southern Sumy regions. Russia also claimed strikes on ships in the Black Sea.

Musk, meanwhile, has supported Trump's calls for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be replaced, has been highly critical of the Ukrainian president, is one of the Republican party's biggest donors and a Trump ally - a position that adds weight to his role in a service Ukraine's defence depends on.

Who is ultimately responsible for limiting Kyiv's Starshield access remains unanswered. Ukrainian officials, for their part, say the service is still capped and that the country's air defences remain hampered as the strikes continue.