Officials Say the Starlink Order Came From Inside the White House
The instruction to slow Ukraine’s military satellite service came from within the White House, two American officials and a Western official have said, with the Pentagon told the service “needed to be slowed”. A senior official denies it narrowly: “No such request was ever made by the president.” Britain’s defence secretary says his American counterpart has assured him the service is back.
Two cautions. The sourcing is anonymous and the denial covers only the president — the White House declined to say whether anyone else gave the instruction, and no official would name who decided or who carried it out. And “restored” is doing a lot of work: a Ukrainian defence ministry source said receptors were working while moving but only up to 100mph, which is the cap that disabled interceptor drones in the first place. Wes Streeting said Pete Hegseth told him face to face that the service was back, while admitting “it’s not yet clear to us in the UK what happened”. Meanwhile the dispute that started it has hardened. Donald Trump called the Ukrainian refinery strikes “a disgrace”, saying “all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher”, and added that he finds Volodymyr Zelensky “more difficult to deal with than Putin”. Vladimir Putin was dismissive of the strikes — “they hit here and there. Nothing particularly significant” — and promised a response. Russia sent more than 850 drones at fifteen Ukrainian regions overnight, killing three in Kirovohrad.