Democratic senators demand that Musk preserve documents regarding Starlink – WSJ

US Senate seeks to investigate Starlink restrictions for Ukraine

U.S. Democratic senators are demanding that Elon Musk preserve documents and correspondence regarding restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine. Congress plans to determine who made the relevant decisions and whether the Trump administration was involved.

According to Censor.NET, The Wall Street Journal reports on this, citing a letter from the senators that was obtained by the publication.

The letter to Musk was signed by Senators Jean Shaheen and Chris Coons. They point to disruptions in satellite systems between October 13 and 24, as well as on November 12. According to them, these disruptions negatively impacted the operations of the Ukrainian military.

Senators are demanding that SpaceX provide documents regarding Starlink outages in Ukraine

Senators are demanding that all documents dating from September 1 be preserved, including correspondence between Musk, SpaceX executives, the White House, and the Pentagon. They also want to determine whether anyone outside the company approved the decision to restrict Ukraine’s access to Starlink.

Senators are particularly concerned that critical military communication channels and the control of Ukrainian drones and interceptor systems depend on the operation of SpaceX systems.

Democrats plan to launch sweeping investigations into the Trump administration's actions after securing a majority in both houses of Congress. The new Congress will begin its work in January.

For now, the senators are demanding that SpaceX confirm that the documents have been preserved and answer their questions by November 30.

What led up to this?

On October 14, volunteer and former advisor to the Minister of Defense Serhiy Sternenko stated that overnight, SpaceX restricted the operation of Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military. As a result, he said, "a number of important missions were disrupted." The restrictions were imposed on data transmission based on the speed of the UAVs using Starlink.
Sergey Beskrestnov (Flash) later confirmed this information. According to him, the restrictions could also complicate the use of drones designed to intercept jet-powered suicide drones.
Units of the 7th Corps of the Airborne Forces also reported that they began experiencing issues with Starlink connectivity in the Huliaipole area last night. This refers to the Starshield package—the so-called military package—which previously had no data transfer speed limits.
Later, former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that the network is being restored to speeds of up to 160 km/h.
At the same time, Elon Musk stated that he is not the one who sets the limits for Starshield, which Ukraine is using. This system is controlled by the U.S. government, not SpaceX.
According to Reuters, the order to restrict Starshield for Ukraine was issued by the White House.
On October 16, U.S. President Trump stated that Washington was not involved in the slowdown of the "military package" of Starlink (Starshield) satellite communications for the Ukrainian military.
On October 19, Zelenskyy reported that in various sectors of the front, Ukrainian military equipment equipped with the Starlink system stopped functioning at speeds of 130–161 kilometers per hour.
Hegset stated that the Pentagon had not issued any orders to restrict Starshield.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine, and on Thursday, Trump said that "the main thing is that he reversed everything" and declined to comment on whether he had called Musk.
On October 22, Trump refused to say whether he had called SpaceX CEO Elon Musk regarding the speed restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine.
According to Politico, as of Friday morning, October 23, the Ukrainian military was still facing speed restrictions on Starlink, even though Trump had announced that the service had resumed full operation.
On October 24,
the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced that SpaceX’s Starlink terminals and their military variants, StarShield, are once again operating at speeds exceeding 161 km/h.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also confirmed the resumption of Starlink service for Ukraine.