American billionaire Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 20, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter.

Axar.az reports, citing The New Voice of Ukraine, WSJ’s sources stated that Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public. One of the sources claimed Musk and Trump discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s announcements – namely that people could die if the unrestricted service wasn’t restored – led to widespread confusion about who ordered the slowdown, and to an informal investigation inside the White House.

Amid the uproar, SpaceX representatives reached out to their White House counterparts seeking a unified understanding of the situation and to coordinate future public statements.

Some U.S. officials say that Musk acted unilaterally and that Trump didn’t specifically order any retribution against Ukraine, WSJ wrote. However, several other sources said Musk talked to multiple senior administration officials, including with the U.S. president.