Elon Musk ordered the Starlink slowdown that left Ukraine's drones useless, US officials say, despite blaming Trump

Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Wednesday that Washington had 'no foreknowledge' of the cut. The cap, imposed on October 14, barred anything moving faster than 100mph from connecting to Starshield, Starlink's military variant. Volodymyr Zelensky said he felt 'betrayed' and warned 'people will die'. Musk and President Trump reportedly discussed the decision by phone.

Musk had written on X that limits were 'decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS'.

Trump denied involvement, saying: 'It wasn't me. And I don't think it was Elon.'

The outage hit just as Russia launched drone attacks on Ukraine's power plants.