Ukraine has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of undermining its ability to defend itself by limiting Starlink internet services, as the country reeled from intense Russian ballistic missile attacks that it said came without the usual advance warning from allies.
Facing pressure from President Donald Trump to halt strikes on Russia’s energy industry, Kyiv and its backers have worried Washington could cut off battlefield support to try and force it into concessions at the negotiating table.
Ukrainian officials and their European partners were already scrambling to understand the status of U.S. intelligence sharing after the lack of alert ahead of two Russian ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv this week, two Ukrainian and two European officials told NBC News.
Trump insisted the U.S. was still sharing intel, but with relations spiraling Ukrainian officials and military units were on Wednesday accusing SpaceX of throttling a technology essential to their battlefield communications and drone operations.
It was not immediately clear what might be behind the Starlink interruptions, though some Ukrainian officials said the timing could not be a coincidence given that Musk is a close Trump ally.
The Ukrainian government has yet to receive a response from SpaceX, a Ukrainian official told NBC News, and Ukrainian units are already reporting issues with performance even at lower UAV speeds.
Asked about the importance of the technology, Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to the U.S. Denys Sienik said Starshield is live saving. “The technology helps us save the lives of civilians and prevent more destructions in Ukraine caused by Russian side.”
Drone disruptions
SpaceX had introduced speed limits on the operation of its Starlink satellite internet terminals overnight, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defense tech adviser, Serhii Beskrestnov.
“Our defence forces received no warning of such a restriction, and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” Beskrestnov said on Telegram. “It is obvious that this action cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation,” he added.
An army unit fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said Wednesday it had been forced to cancel some planned operations.
The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Ukrainian air assault forces said it began “noticing Starlink connectivity problems caused by data transfer speed limits” overnight, adding that the changes directly affected drones that use the service for in-flight control.
“The drones kept flying, but the interruptions made them harder to control,” it said in a statement.
Beskrestnov said that restrictions were specifically put on the operation of the military-grade version of Starlink at speeds above 100 mph.
Starlink was also key for Ukraine’s aerial defenses as it was used to intercept the jet-powered drones that Moscow has unleashed on Ukrainian cities in recent months, he added. Asked about the importance of the technology, Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to the U.S. Denys Sienik said “the technology helps us save the lives of civilians and prevent more destruction in Ukraine caused by the Russian side.”
Ukraine has reached out to the U.S. government and SpaceX for clarification on the rationale for the new restrictions but has yet to receive a response, according to a Ukrainian official.
Ukraine’s armed forces learned about the limitations from customer support after filing a complaint regarding operational issues, the official said, adding that SpaceX had not warned of the move.
Ukrainian military units were already reporting issues with drone performance at even lower speeds, the official added.
The White House, SpaceX and Starlink did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
The disruption follows days of mounting tensions between Kyiv and Washington, as Trump pushes to lower gas prices ahead of the midterm elections. Trump’s latest reversal in his bid to settle the war saw him stun Kyiv by striking a diesel deal with Russia that upended years of U.S. sanctions.
He then demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil refineries and called for Zelenskyy to be replaced. Trump also announced an “energy ceasefire” that neither warring side appears to have agreed to.
Kyiv said it had refrained from striking Russian energy targets to respect Trump’s wishes, but the Kremlin has continued to hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure in its annual effort to leave its neighbor in the freezing dark as winter sets in.
Intel uncertainty
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine had not received any early warning from its partners about “a particularly vile ballistic missile strike on Kyiv” a day earlier. Explosions rang out before an alert was issued, according to an NBC News producer in the capital.
“Intelligence on Russian ballistic missile launches helps save lives, and this is one of the most critical issues,” Zelenskyy said, without singling out the U.S.
Later Tuesday, he reported another strike on Kyiv was “the second time Ukraine was not warned.”
The Kremlin noted the confusion Wednesday, but said it was “too early to draw any systemic conclusions.”
Zelenskyy said that at least 600,000 people across Ukraine were without power Wednesday after the latest wave of Russian attacks, adding that President Vladimir Putin was in clear violation of the energy truce announced by Trump. “Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” he added.
Like Trump, Musk has repeatedly oscillated in his stance on the war.
The billionaire turned on the Starlink satellite internet service over Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
It has become a lifeline for war-torn parts of the country, but has also facilitated battlefield communications ​and enabled the use of longer-range drones, given its resistance to signal jamming.
Musk agreed to ​turn off thousands of Russian-used Starlinks in Ukraine this year, causing problems ‌for ⁠the Kremlin’s forces. But in recent days, Musk has echoed Trump’s criticism.
The suggestion that his company might have deliberately limited Ukraine’s battlefield operations drew criticism in Europe.
“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski wrote in a post on X, referencing a past clash over Starlink in which Musk called him a “small man.”
Sikorski continued; “As your European customers, we are watching you.”

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Megan Brand takes stock of the debut of the new White House press secretary. Plus, Natasha Korecki examines whether Republicans may have a surprise opportunity for a breakthrough in the Midwest.
— Adam Wollner
Trump’s new White House press secretary keeps her first briefing short
By Megan Brand
President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia held an unusually short first briefing with the media today, concluding after less than 15 minutes and calling on just three reporters, all from conservative outlets.
Zacharia spent more than half of that time reading remarks before taking questions from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.
In response to one question, she also revealed that the administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign following allegations of misconduct.
Zacharia spent most of her remarks touting the president’s policies and framed her new position as a job to “amplify” the president, something she said she’d done as a conservative commentator. She referred to those appearances, telling reporters that she hopes to “take that into an official capacity.”
Now, Zacharia said, she hopes to “only build on, only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins” that Trump is “making for Americans, for Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he’s been able to accomplish.”
“My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the president, as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be leading the way with that,” she added.
Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August, leaving Trump without a chief spokesperson for much of the run-up to the midterms. The president said during a recent rally in Oklahoma that the administration is “not doing a good job of public relations.” At a separate event, he said that the administration was “doing an extremely poor job of promotion,” despite doing an “extremely great job of running the country.”
Read more →
As Democrats make inroads in red terrain, an unlikely state tightens
Analysis by Natasha Korecki
Amid the run of rosy storylines for Democrats in this midterm election, one state stands out as a potential outlier: blue-leaning Minnesota.
At a time when Senate seats in traditionally Republican states like Texas, Kansas and Alaska appear to be in play for Democrats, Minnesota is surprisingly tight, if recent polls are to be believed.
A KARE 11/Minnesota Star Tribune poll released yesterday shows Democrat Peggy Flanagan with a 4-point lead, 47% to 43%, over Republican Michele Tafoya among likely voters in the Senate race. Another 9% said they were still undecided.
It’s not the sort of edge one would expect from a state that has gone blue in every presidential election since 1972 or in today’s unfavorable political climate toward Republicans.
So what’s different? A few dynamics stand out. First, it’s an open seat, as Democratic Sen. Tina Smith is retiring. Second, Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster and first-time candidate, has attempted to stake out a more independent stance, calling herself a “pro-choice Republican.”
There is also the unique set of local issues in Minnesota around alleged fraud related to social services and investigations by the Trump administration. Amid that effort, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced he would abandon his political aspirations and not seek re-election. Flanagan, the lieutenant governor, is Walz’s No. 2 in state government.
In June, after the Justice Department first announced fraud charges in the state, one poll showed Minnesota voters cited fraud as one of their top issues, and said they blamed Walz and wanted more done to stamp it out.
This week, federal authorities searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in what sources told NBC News was a federal criminal investigation.
In a post on X, Omar called the search “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” adding that over the last decade, President Donald Trump “has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns.”
As for the impact on the Senate race, the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC is looking at it through a lens of “Watch what they do, not what they say.”
Lauren French, a spokesperson for the group, noted that national Republicans have not put money into the state. And while Senate Majority PAC has paid for some digital ads in Texas, it has not spent in Minnesota, campaign finance records show.
“If Republicans really thought this race was competitive, you would see them putting the money that they’re putting into Kansas and South Carolina into Minnesota,” French said. “The fact that they are not is very telling.”
Still, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Nick Puglia said that the fraud investigations that have happened under Walz and Flanagan’s watch put Minnesota “in play.”
“Michele Tafoya is the fighter Minnesotans deserve to stop the fraud and reverse years of failed policies pushed by Flanagan,” Puglia said.
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.
CORRECTION: (Oct. 14, 2026, 9:50 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated who holds the Minnesota Senate seat Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya are running for. It is represented by Sen. Tina Smith, not Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A viral rumor claiming Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico secretly spent his recent campaign absence at an Ohio behavioral health center has now been debunked — but new questions are emerging over why evidence that could have quickly undercut the allegation was not made public as the speculation exploded online.
The New York Times reported Monday that it reviewed time-stamped security camera images provided by Talarico’s campaign showing the Democrat at his Austin home between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, when his nine-day absence from the campaign trail was fueling mounting speculation about his whereabouts.
The images, which the campaign provided to the Times on the condition they not be published for security reasons, offer the clearest independent evidence yet supporting Talarico’s account that he was home recovering from the flu and contradict claims that he instead traveled more than 1,000 miles away for treatment at an Ohio behavioral health center.
PAXTON’S ESTRANGED WIFE BREAKS SILENCE ON TEXAS SENATE RACE AFTER ‘BIBLICAL GROUNDS’ DIVORCE
But the revelation has also prompted criticism from some observers questioning why Talarico’s campaign did not provide similarly verifiable evidence earlier before an unsubstantiated theory about his whereabouts mushroomed across social media and was amplified by prominent conservatives.
“In October of an election year, every day and every hour count as candidates do everything they can to meet with voters. So, if you are out of commission for any extent of time, it’s easy for voters to wonder what’s going on,” GOP strategist Mark Bednar told Fox News Digital.
“That being said, if there’s a simple explanation like an illness, it’s even easier to just prove that outright to voters. If the flu was really the case with Talarico, it’s mind-numbing malpractice that his campaign didn’t quickly and easily demonstrate that.”
Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Chuck Ross pointed to the Times report Monday, writing on X that the footage “could have been released a week ago and quashed the rumors.”
FOX NEWS POLL: IT’S A LONE STAR SENATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TALARICO AND PAXTON
Talarico’s campaign had maintained throughout his absence that he was recovering from the flu, and Talarico appeared virtually at an event Sept. 30 while visibly ill and told attendees he had come down with the illness. But his extended absence from in-person campaigning increasingly became a subject of speculation as Election Day approached.
The speculation accelerated after Talarico’s campaign reposted footage from a February rally on Oct. 3 without initially identifying it as a months-old video. His campaign told the Times it routinely reposts older social media content.
“Let’s be fair here. You’re 20 days out from Election Day, and you’re running for senate in one of the biggest states in the country. Use tech to connect: direct to camera videos, do a livestream. To just go dark is malpractice,” Matt Gorman, chief communications officer at Targeted Victory, told Fox News Digital.
“You’re running for Senate, not some cubicle dweller.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital gave Talarico’s campaign an opportunity Tuesday to respond to the criticism and update its previous statement after The New York Times’ reporting. The campaign declined to add to its earlier response.
“This is a conspiracy theory that has been proven false. James is excited to be back on the campaign trail after recovering from the flu,” campaign spokesperson JT Ennis told Fox News Digital Monday.
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Ennis, meanwhile, turned his attention toward Talarico’s Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“It’s been 87 days since James challenged Ken Paxton to come out of hiding and answer Texans’ questions in a debate, which even President Trump called on him to do,” Ennis said. “Ball is in Paxton’s court.”

It comes after Prime Minister Andy Burnham provoked a backlash from some Brexit campaigners by saying it was “clear” there had been interference by Moscow in the 2016 vote.
In an interview released on Monday, Burnham told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there had been Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.”
He did not provide details about the extent or nature of Russian activities during the interview, and when pressed on the subject in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon appeared to be less definitive.
He said it was a “matter of record” that Russia sought to interfere in the 2019 general election, adding: “We think it is inconceivable that this was the first time”.
A No 10 spokesperson also clarified that while the prime minister believed it was highly likely Russia tried to influence the referendum result, he did not believe those efforts were successful.
Answering questions after his annual speech at MI5’s London headquarters earlier, Sir Ken said: “It is openly on the record that Russia Today and Sputnik and other Russian media organisations came in pretty strongly around the referendum.
“And it is also a matter of open source record that there was a certain amount of interference attempted through trolls and bots and so forth.”
He added that he agreed “strongly” with the PM that there was a hack and leak during the 2019 general election campaign.
“It is kind of up to us how far we allow our various adversaries to divide us,” Sir Ken said.
“And I’m a little bit worried that if we all stay in this debate for another few days, that Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted because they are front page news again despite the comparative unimpressiveness of what they do at all points along the journey.”
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that in 2016, when he became foreign secretary, the security services had told him “there was no evidence of any successful interference in the 2016 referendum, by Russia or any other power”.

Russia attacks Ukraine after Trump’s “energy ceasefire.” Conservative rumors about James Talarico backfires. And more than 400 trees are chopped down at the D.C. golf course Trump wants to renovate.
Here’s what to know today.
Russia strikes Ukraine’s infrastructure despite Trump’s ‘energy ceasefire’
Oil and gas prices rose yesterday after President Donald Trump’s “energy ceasefire,” announced Sunday, failed to gain traction. Brent crude had jumped 2% to almost $108 per barrel, and U.S. crude oil had risen more than 2% to about $94. By Tuesday morning, Brent fell to around $105 per barrel and U.S. crude oil to around $92.
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Meanwhile, Russia has continued to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, including an attack on a power plant in Kharkiv.
Trump indicated that he knew neither Ukraine nor Russia had committed to a ceasefire when he made the announcement on Truth Social. “They agreed, you know why? Because I said, ‘You agree,’” Trump told reporters yesterday.
The “energy ceasefire” came two days after another surprise Trump announcement — that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to supply 300,000 tons of diesel fuel “to the American and Global Marketplace,” requiring a six-month suspension of the fuel sanctions imposed on the Kremlin in 2022 for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. The suspension of sanctions angered Ukrainian officials, European allies and some U.S. lawmakers.
Trump yesterday defended the deal with Russia, calling it “the right choice for the American people.” Still, experts are highly skeptical that there will be any significant resumption of Russian diesel exports in the near term because of Ukrainian strikes on refiners deep inside Russia.
Why the ceasefire and diesel deals caught some leaders by surprise.
GOP attempts to trip up James Talarico keep backfiring
Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico returned to the campaign trail after he said he had the flu with a message for his Republican challenger, Ken Paxton: Let’s debate. “Ken Paxton asked for proof of life for me,” Talarico said. “I’m asking for proof of spine from him.”
Talarico’s challenge to Paxton came after conservatives on social media launched rumors that his absence for over a week was because of mental health issues. The Ohio facility at the center of the rumor debunked the assertion. Talarico said he had never been to the state. Even some Republicans admit the episode is a bad look, and it’s not the first time the GOP has tried to take a big swing at Talarico, only for it to backfire.
How the GOP has attacked Talarico.
More politics news:
For subscribers: NBC News’ chief data analyst Steve Kornacki explains why this year’s midterms are different from the 2018 election in The Data Dive, a subscriber-exclusive newsletter on the numbers, trends and data shaping the biggest stories heading into the midterms.
For subscribers: A GOP group spent $25,000 to boost Susan Collins in Portland, Maine. The ads ran in Portland, Oregon, instead.
Trump says ‘we’re looking at’ firing Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece
Trump indicated Monday that he’s considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former top campaign surrogate who has served as the U.S. ambassador to Greece since 2025.
“We’re looking at it,” Trump said when asked if he’s weighing firing Guilfoyle, as first reported by The Associated Press, amid allegations of misconduct related to her role as ambassador.
“We’re not happy,” Trump added.
Guilfoyle and the U.S. Embassy in Greece are under investigation by the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, two people familiar with the decision confirmed to NBC News last week.
The probe came after reports in The Wall Street Journal of misconduct in her role as ambassador, including allegedly bragging about her connections to Greek tycoons who she said funded luxury trips for her. The story cited people who heard the conversation and an audio recording. The reports have not been independently confirmed by NBC News.
Last week, a Trump donor named Eric Deters came forward accusing Guilfoyle of asking him to pay her outstanding $100,000 American Express bill in the days before her 2025 confirmation hearing in the Senate in exchange for access to senior administration officials.
Read the full story.
Judge slams Trump admin for felling trees on D.C golf course
A federal judge issued a restraining order barring any other trees from being removed — until today, at least — from a public golf course in Washington, D.C., that Donald Trump wants to turn into “one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world.” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes tore into the Trump administration in a hearing yesterday after the removal of more than 400 trees over the weekend from East Potomac Golf Course. “I’m furious,” she told Justice Department attorneys, adding, “What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility.”
Reyes previously told the Trump administration to provide her and the plaintiffs’ attorneys “enough notice before some major thing happens,” and the government agreed. But yesterday, a Justice Department attorney claimed “we did our best” when it gave notice of its plans to chop hundreds of trees shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, at the beginning of a three-day holiday weekend and about 12 hours before work began.
What else Reyes told Trump administration lawyers.
Staff Pick: AI is shaking up the math world
When OpenAI announced it had solved more than 370 math problems that humans had to figure out, it shook mathematicians across the globe.
It’s a hard story to understand — the math problems OpenAI says it solved are abstract, complicated and well beyond my level of math schooling. Are these problems important? Is this just hype?
I cast a wide net among mathematicians to get a feel for how this finding — and AI, in general — is shaking their field. They were all over the map.
“We should be rejoicing and dancing in the streets,” one mathematician said. “We’ve been hit by a huge wave and now we’re sort of out at sea,” said another.
While some viewed the new AI-generated solutions as a “treasure trove” or a “breakthrough” on key problems, others described it as sloppily written work that would take academic mathematicians months to verify. — Evan Bush, science reporter
Read All About It
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‘Breaking Bad’ actor RJ Mitte dies at 34
00:0000:00
RJ Mitte, the actor known for playing the son of Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and an advocate for the rights of those with disabilities, has died at age 34.
A person died at Six Flags Over Georgia after witnesses reported seeing a man fall from the Goliath roller coaster.
Selma Blair was arraigned on two counts of assault, accused of being physically abusive on flight, as well as kicking an officer and a nurse. Attorneys for the “Cruel Intentions” star said she was experiencing a medical emergency.
A man who was injured when an ICE officer’s car ran over him last weekend in Houston will need additional surgeries to reconstruct his leg and other parts of his body, an advocate said.
The Buffalo Bills’ 37-34 victory over the Los Angeles Rams was the thriller of the NFL season, a back-and-forth affair featuring numerous twists, turns, touchdowns, turnovers and game-changing plays.
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