Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a version of SpaceX's Starlink that Ukraine has relied on in its war against Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter.
Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, last week "capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network," the Journal reported. The decision left some Ukrainian drones virtually inoperable, according to the newspaper.
Musk and President Donald Trump, who have both recently criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, discussed the move to throttle Starlink "soon after" the change first became public last week, two people told the Journal.
One of the people who spoke with the news outlet claimed that Musk discussed the matter with multiple senior Trump administration officials, including the president himself, prior to imposing the Starlink speed cap.
The White House and an email associated with Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the Journal's report, which was published minutes after SpaceX reported its latest quarterly earnings.