Following a wave of fierce backlash, President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that Ukraine’s access to SpaceX’s Starlink services had been fully restored — only to have that claim immediately undercut by a Ukrainian official, Axios’ Barak Ravid reported Friday.
Last week, Ukraine’s ability to use Starlink services for combat drone missions was compromised after its access to the broadband internet service was restricted without warning. Some prominent Ukrainian figures suspected Trump was behind the move given the president’s growing frustrations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Subsequent reporting tied the newly imposed Starlink restrictions directly to the White House, and on Thursday, Trump neither confirmed nor denied the allegations that he had spoken to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk about restoring Ukraine’s access to Starlink.
“I don't want to comment on it, you know, whether I called or whether somebody else called. Doesn't make any difference,” Trump told reporters. “The bottom line: He put it back.”
And yet, despite Trump’s claim, a Ukrainian official disputed the president within a matter of hours.
“A Ukrainian official tells me that Starlink and Starshield are still restricted in Ukraine despite Trump's claim that it is back up,” Ravid wrote in a post on X.
🚨A Ukrainian official tells me that Starlink and Starshield are still restricted in Ukraine despite Trump's claim that it is back up
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 23, 2026