Growing dispute over Starlink disruptions in Ukraine

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] There a dispute tonight over who gave

[0:03] the order to restrict Starlink internet

[0:05] speeds in Ukraine which disrupted drone

[0:07] operations and according to President

[0:09] Zilinski put lives at risk. Elon Musk

[0:12] licenses the technology to the

[0:14] government and claims President Trump

[0:16] controls access and service. But a

[0:18] Ukrainian official tells CBS News Musk

[0:21] made the decision today. President Trump

[0:22] was asked about the disruption.

[0:24] >> Mr. Was it was it you or was it Elon

[0:27] Musk who decided to temporarily pause

[0:30] Starlink access for the Ukrainian

[0:32] military?

[0:32] >> Anybody

[0:34] and I don't think it was Elon and from

[0:37] what I understand is the same as always

[0:39] been.

[0:40] >> That was our Nancy Cordez. CBS News

[0:42] international reporter Aiden Stretch has

[0:43] more. Here is what we know about the

[0:46] restrictions imposed on Ukraine's access

[0:48] to Starlink this week, which some

[0:50] military analysts have told CBS News is

[0:53] the most important technology to

[0:55] Ukraine's war effort. So on Wednesday

[0:57] morning, Ukrainian officials and

[0:58] soldiers began reporting failures on

[1:01] their Star Shields. These are

[1:02] essentially militarygra Starlink dishes

[1:05] that soldiers strap onto the wings of

[1:07] drones so that they can control their

[1:09] strikes from further away. By Wednesday

[1:12] evening, many of the restrictions were

[1:14] lifted. Uh, and while some soldiers told

[1:17] CBS News today that there were some

[1:19] restrictions and some difficulties still

[1:21] in place, they said that the issue has

[1:22] been largely resolved. Now, the question

[1:25] is, who made this decision in the first

[1:27] place to restrict this access? And this

[1:29] is where things get a bit complicated.

[1:31] What we do know is that earlier this

[1:33] week, the White House made threats to

[1:36] withhold certain intelligence and

[1:38] weapons capabilities from Ukraine if ke

[1:40] did not stop striking certain energy

[1:42] targets inside Russia. We also know that

[1:45] Starshield being the military equivalent

[1:47] of Starlink is ultimately operated and

[1:50] implemented by the Pentagon. which is to

[1:52] say if SpaceX made a decision about

[1:55] restricting access to Ukraine, certain

[1:57] American government officials would have

[1:59] had to have overseen it or implemented

[2:01] it to some degree. President Trump said

[2:04] that he did not make this decision. Elon

[2:06] Musk earlier also said earlier this week

[2:08] that he did not make this decision. And

[2:10] I can tell you that both Ukrainian and

[2:12] American officials have told CBS News

[2:15] that they are extremely confused about

[2:17] what happened here and are working to

[2:18] get to the bottom of it. And so are we.

[2:20] We will let you know everything that we

[2:22] learn as soon as we have it.