The Ukrainian armed forces have been registering significant disruptions to the military satellite communications service Starshield for several days along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this on Thursday, 12 November, in a post on the messaging service Telegram, as Radio Svoboda reports. According to this, a systematic speed limit of 161 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour) applies to the terminals.
Zelensky wrote that the soldiers had already examined the circumstances: “These are not random errors, but a systematic speed limit.” He was referring to reports from Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mykhailo Drapatyi. The limit affects the speed of the devices that use the satellite connection, not the data transfer rate, Hromadske reports.
Why drone defence is coming up empty
For Ukraine, this above all means a problem in defending against Russian jet drones, which fly significantly faster than 161 km/h. “Unfortunately, there have already been hits because the interceptors cannot reach sufficient speed and cannot intercept in time,” Zelensky said, according to the news outlet zn.ua. The restrictions help Russia to kill more Ukrainians and carry out more precision strikes. Ukraine is trying “to clarify all the circumstances with the American side”.
There were initially no comments from the US government or from SpaceX on the new restrictions, Radio Svoboda writes. The broadcaster is the Ukrainian service of the US international broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Starshield is the military version of the satellite internet Starlink of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Ukraine relies heavily on the system for communications at the front and for air defence.
A pattern that already emerged in October
This is not the first incident of its kind. Already in October, the Ukrainian side had reported restrictions, at around 160 km/h at the time. The timing coincided with US President Donald Trump’s announcement that, as part of an understanding with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian diesel would temporarily be exempted from sanctions and brought onto the world market – coupled with a demand on Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian refineries. The White House denied any involvement at the time and attributed the disruption to a technical defect, as Hromadske reports, citing Axios. Musk stated that Starshield was a separate system controlled by the US government, and that the American authorities decided on its use. According to Radio Svoboda, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the claim that Trump or anyone in the US government had demanded changes to the operation of the systems.
The “Wall Street Journal” subsequently reported that Musk himself had ordered the restrictions, allegedly after disputes over Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Later, Trump had contacted Musk and asked for them to be lifted, Hromadske writes. A congressional delegation that visited Kyiv stated that the restrictions had weakened Ukrainian air defence and endangered the lives of Ukrainian civilians as well as American personnel. The Pentagon’s supervisory authority declined to investigate the incident, although senators had demanded it.
On 24 October, Defence Minister Khmara reported in a comment for Radio Svoboda that Starshield had regained its speed: “The Defence Ministry’s monitoring systems are recording a restoration of the speed of Starlink/Starshield. We are recording more than 400 km/h, the connection is stable.” The causes of the restriction at the time and the question of who had ordered it remained unresolved. The new restrictions now occur less than three weeks after this report.
What happens next
According to zn.ua, Ukraine intends to start talks with the US on extending the Starshield contract, which expires in 2027. After the midterm elections, the Democrats in the US Congress want to investigate the causes of the Starlink restrictions in January, when they take control of Congress.
The new reports coincide with intensive diplomatic efforts: after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, the US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to find a solution to the war that has lasted almost five years, as France 24 reports.
An editorial assessment: Should the pattern repeat itself, Ukrainian air defence would once again depend on a system whose operation lies outside its control. The announced talks on extending the contract until 2027 make clear how urgently Kyiv needs a reliable commitment from Washington – regardless of who ordered the current limits.
