A former Trump administration official is pushing back against Ukrainian officials upset by the global internet satellite system Starlink suddenly restricting service in that country, which is still fighting Russian forces. Elon Musk serves as CEO, CTO, and chairman of SpaceX, of which Starlink is a wholly owned subsidiary. 

Victoria Coates, VP for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation and former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Trump, explained the situation on Wednesday’s episode of the Just the News, No Noise, television show.

"Starlink needs to make sure it's protecting itself": Coates

“Starlink is a civilian satellite-generated internet access plant. It's not supposed to have weapon systems on it,” Coates said. “It's not designed for that. Now, there's something called Starshield, which is also a SpaceX program, but it's run by the United States government. That's what you run weapon systems on.”

“[Starlink] it’s not the right venue for this. Now, you might make a decision to do that in the middle of a shooting war. I'm not going to second guess them, but that's not what that system was designed to do. And so, Starlink needs to make sure it's protecting itself. It's not knowingly supporting combat operations. You know, that's their policy. It's a private company.”

Coates’ comments come after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused SpaceX of harming its war efforts by restricting access to military-grade service, The Guardian reported. The disruption of service happened on Tuesday night, with the satellite service no longer providing its platforms in Ukraine with speeds greater than 100mph (160 km/h). The Starlink system is produced by SpaceX, which Musk defended in a post on X, which he also owns.

“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk wrote. “Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”

It is unclear who actually made the decision to restrict the service, but Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by Trump, further claiming that the restriction “will bring a lot of human losses [...] of course, people will die.”

Axios reported that Ukraine uses both of SpaceX’s satellite services – Starlink for communications, ground forces, logistics, and defensive drones, and Starshield for offensive military purposes. Ukraine reportedly claimed both systems were restricted. White House officials told Ukraine that they didn’t have control over SpaceX but would reach out to the company to determine what happened, according to Axios.

Since the disruption, Ukraine says Starlink partially restored its satellite speeds, The Hill reported. CNBC confirmed the partial restoration, saying that some restrictions appear to have been partially lifted. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, said on X Wednesday afternoon that the 100mph speeds were being reinstated, and thanked Musk.

The White House did not respond to a Just the News inquiry.