The Pentagon received an order from the White House to restrict Starshield for the Ukrainian Armed Forces — Reuters

The leadership of the U.S. Department of Defense received instructions from the White House to slow the provision of Starshield satellite system services to Ukrainian forces. This was confirmed to Reuters by three people familiar with the matter.

For Ukrainian forces, Starshield is a tool for battlefield communications and drone control. A potential reduction in services could therefore affect critical elements of military infrastructure. SpaceX developed the system for defense purposes using Starlink technology.

The Pentagon is the largest customer of Starshield. As a result, decisions about providing these services to Ukraine are directly tied to the U.S. defense department.

The agency’s sources could not say who inside the White House initiated the order. Nor could they identify who was tasked with overseeing its implementation.

After receiving this information, Reuters journalists sought comment from another senior U.S. administration official. When asked whether the order had come directly from President Donald Trump, the official categorically denied it:

“The president never made such a request,” said a senior U.S. administration official.

At the same time, the White House did not answer questions about whether other administration officials might have initiated restrictions on Starshield services for Ukraine.

The information released also does not make clear the scale of the planned service reduction. It is also unknown whether the order affected the actual operation of Starshield in Ukraine.

Separately, Ukrainian forces have reported outages affecting Starlink: the loss of connectivity forced them to cancel drone sorties.

We previously reported:

• Zelenskyy asks Musk to restore Starlink: outages could cost lives
• Military Starlink restrictions disrupted important missions by the Defense Forces
• Ukraine is creating its own Starlink alternative — Zelenskyy
• Trump did not support expanding Starlink for Ukrainian attack drones in Russia — Financial Times
• Starlink is not the only option: Ukraine sets its sights on its own Space Force