US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would intervene to resolve any remaining problems with Ukraine’s access to Starlink, the satellite communications service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.Trump reportedly contacted Musk in recent days to seek the restoration of Ukraine’s full access to Starshield. (AP)Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he had not discussed the issue with Musk but would contact the SpaceX chief if the access problems persisted, news agency Reuters reported. “If there is a problem, I'll get it straightened out,” Trump said.The restrictions have been in place since October 13, amid deteriorating relations between Kyiv and Washington. Ukrainian officials said on Friday that speed limits on Starlink systems remained in force, contradicting Trump’s earlier claim that access had been fully restored.“Elon will never do anything wrong”Defending Musk, Trump said the billionaire would not deliberately do anything wrong, citing his familiarity with the SpaceX chief."Elon will never do anything wrong.
I know him very well. He's a fair person, and you know it's an unusual situation where they're talking to a private company.
But he's not going to do anything that's wrong," Trump said.Ukraine says Starshield restrictions remain in placeSerhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said there was no indication that the restrictions had been removed.“At this time, we are not observing any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” he said. “There are isolated cases where Starlink may operate slightly faster than the restrictions allow, but this is likely due to the SpaceX algorithm or specific usage conditions, rather than a lifting of the restrictions.”A source in Ukraine’s Defence Ministry also told CNN on Friday morning that there was no confirmation of the restrictions being lifted. The source added that signal losses continued to affect military ordnance travelling at speeds above 100 miles per hour (161 kilometres per hour).A Ukrainian Armed Forces officer said speed restrictions were still affecting connectivity and making military coordination more difficult.“There are definitely speed limits; nothing has changed yet, at least from what I can see here,” the officer told CNN. “It makes coordination difficult; sometimes there are interruptions.
The connection drops out for 10 to 15 seconds.”The officer added, “We lost a lot of assets, much more than usual,” saying the restrictions had affected reconnaissance drones and drones equipped with Starlink systems.Another source familiar with the matter told CNN on Thursday afternoon that any restoration of access remained limited and was “clearly not enough to intercept jet-powered drones” launched by Russia.Ukraine is awaiting information and clarification from the US side, but has yet to receive a response, the source said.Starlink curbs disrupt Ukrainian military operationsThe restrictions have reportedly affected Ukraine’s military operations for more than a week, particularly the use of interceptor drones to defend against Russian attacks.Ukrainian officials said the limitations on high-speed movement had disrupted military ordnance, hampered drone interception efforts and complicated operations across several areas of the front line.The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had called Musk last week to ask him to restore Ukraine’s full access to the satellite communications network.Trump and some of his senior officials had previously denied making the call to restrict Ukraine’s use of Starshield, without providing a clear explanation of what had happened. Earlier this week, Trump said he was not involved.On Thursday, Trump declined to directly address questions about the reported conversation, while maintaining that his relationship with Musk remained positive.“I don’t want to comment one way or the other, but my relationship with Elon is a very good one,” the US president said.