As of Friday, 23 October: Donald Trump says Elon Musk has restored Ukraine’s Starlink access. Kyiv and a senior European official disagree. According to AP, the speed cap of roughly 160 km/h (100 mph) is still in place. Ten days on, nobody has said who ordered the throttling.
The sequence so far. On the evening of 13 October, Ukrainian troops reported sudden failures on Starlink and Starshield terminals; Starshield is the military version of the service. President Volodymyr Zelensky says the link drops once an aircraft exceeds about 161 km/h – roughly two minutes later the system cuts out and the interceptor drone is lost. Against jet-powered Shahed drones, which fly considerably faster, that makes the system useless. “So the speed is not enough, and we waste drones,” Zelensky said on 17 October.
He backs the claim with a test: Ukraine sent several cars fitted with Starlink to EU countries and drove them at more than 180 km/h where possible – the connection held. His conclusion: the restriction applies only in Ukraine, and it is “a planned operation”. As far as we know, Kyiv has not published the recordings he refers to, so this is one party’s account.
Who actually controls Starshield?
This is where responsibility blurs. On 14 October Musk wrote on X that Starshield is “owned and controlled by the US government” and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and “ultimately POTUS”. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon had not pulled anything back, but that Ukraine must comply with unspecified terms of service. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said something different: speed and access are governed by a private commercial contract, and Ukraine has no access to Starshield at all, only to Starlink. Reuters, citing sources, reported that the White House ordered the restriction; a US official denied it. The Wall Street Journal wrote on 20 October that Musk himself ordered the cap – again on anonymous sourcing.
Trump denied demanding any restriction and does not believe Musk was responsible. He also said Musk “put it back”, but declined to say whether he had phoned Musk. Taken together, the statements leave open who changed anything in the first place. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has announced an inquiry.
Berlin is cautious. Government spokesman Stefan Cornelius said on 19 October that there was no confirmed information on any restriction and that it had presumably been lifted already. A defence ministry representative said the Bundeswehr relies mostly on its own satellite networks, and would not say whether Starlink is among its options. The European Commission was blunter: spokesman Thomas Regnier demanded that SpaceX “urgently restore services to Ukraine in full”.
Why this is bigger than a speed limit
The episode comes as relations between Kyiv and Washington have visibly worsened. The US administration recently waived restrictions on buying Russian diesel, Trump has called Zelensky a difficult partner to deal with, and Musk posted “Time for Zelensky to go”. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the diesel deal a “very risky decision”. US midterms are next month, and high fuel prices are weighing on the president.
Our assessment, offered with due caution: even if the throttling turns out to be a technical fault or one company’s unilateral move, it has exposed a structural risk. Part of Ukraine’s air defence depends on a network whose rules are set by one corporation and a foreign government, with no say for Kyiv. Three paths look plausible. First, the cap is fully lifted and the story fades politically – most likely while pressure from Congress and Europe lasts. Second, the restriction stays as a quiet bargaining chip; that would set a precedent for every European army using Starlink. Third, Europe speeds up its own alternatives. The Commission points to Iris², a planned constellation of more than 300 satellites that is meant to include Ukraine; in the short term it cannot replace Starlink.
For Ukrainians in Germany this is more than technology: it is about shooting down the drones that have been hitting cities and power plants for weeks. The decisive test is still to come – whether Kyiv confirms in the coming days that interceptors can again be flown at full speed.
Sources: Al Jazeera, Ukrainska Pravda, AP via ABC News, Ukrinform (European Commission), CBS News
