Starlink Speed Limits Lifted for Ukraine After Day of Confusion
A Defence Ministry source says the military-grade satellite service has resumed fully after terminals moving at speed were throttled, as Zelensky insists the disruption was a matter of political will rather than a technical fault.
als said on Wednesday that the functioning of Starlink's military-grade service, Starshield, had been interrupted when terminals were moving at high speed, hampering Ukrainian drones used for attack missions and air defence. The reasons for the difficulties were not immediately clear, but they followed a souring of relations between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Trump announced a deal to waive sanctions on Russian diesel and called for Zelensky to be replaced.
Zelensky has said Ukrainian military officials were warned by their US counterparts that Washington would block intelligence unless they halted strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Zelensky said the suspension was presented to Kyiv as a technical glitch, but he dismissed the idea that the failures of the Starlink satellite system might have been caused by a fault. It was not a technical problem, it was the will, he told the FT.
Trump said on Tuesday that the US was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Elon Musk, the SpaceX chief executive whose company operates Starlink, said the US government controlled the system's speeds. Separately, Zelensky said that, for the second night running, Ukraine had received no warning from its partners of a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv.
The disruption came as Moscow continues its unprovoked assault on Ukraine, targeting the country's cities and critical infrastructure with missiles and drones. Ukraine, defending its sovereignty against Russian aggression, relies on satellite communications to coordinate its resistance. The World House, which maintains a dedicated page outlining its support for Ukraine at worldhouse.uk/support, continues to document the consequences of the Kremlin's brutal campaign.