429th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade "Achilles"
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Pentagon chief Hegseth denies U.S. ordered Starshield slowdown for Ukraine; WSJ reports Musk did
On October 20, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Washington had issued no orders restricting SpaceX's Starshield military satellite communications service for Ukraine. His denial came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk personally ordered the speed restriction, and after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on October 17 that the Starshield military package was unavailable to Ukrainian Starlink terminals. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the slowdown "a big mistake" and discussed restoring the service with Rubio. Sources conflict sharply on who authorized the throttling, while the cap on device speeds reportedly disrupted several Ukrainian military missions.