Ukraine’s military says Starlink satellite connection stable after recent restrictions

Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted.

But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs.

“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for ⁠offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” Musk said in a social media post.

Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said on the Telegram app that the country is “physically unable” to use Starlink for long- and medium-range attack drone operations.

Ukraine’s general staff and defence ministry did not immediately comment.

The Starlink satellite terminals, which are produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but managed by the US government, are a key component of Ukraine’s military operations. Sudden speed restrictions on the terminals, which capped operations at speeds of 160km/h (99mph), led to the failure of several Ukrainian combat missions earlier this month.

The military’s ability to intercept Russian attack drones was hampered and some Ukrainian operations to strike behind enemy frontlines were cancelled. Russia was able to launch ballistic missiles at Ukraine without any advance warning from the US.

The speed restrictions coincided with the announcement by Donald Trump of a US deal to buy Russian diesel, although the US president initially denied that his administration was behind the decision to cut intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

“I don’t know if it was anybody, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said, referring to Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive.

However, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, appeared to throw suspicion on Musk when he defended Trump last Wednesday. “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr Musk,” Rubio said. “That’s a private company. The president doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything.”

Musk was quick to blame the limits on Starshield on the Trump administration, writing on X last week that the systems were “owned and controlled by the US government”. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately Potus [president of the United States],” he wrote.

Musk blamed the limits on Starshield on the Trump administration, writing on X that the systems were ‘owned and controlled by the US government’. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

The US vice-president, JD Vance, backed Musk on Thursday, saying the billionaire “doesn’t want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do”.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, blamed both parties: “It was a message from [the] American government to limit the speed … And technically, SpaceX did it.”

There were no similar restrictions on Starshield terminals in EU countries and that they applied only to Ukraine, he added. “In other words, this is a planned operation.”

He said the decision would “bring a lot of human losses … of course people would die”.

Announcing the restoration of the system on Saturday in a diplomatic video address on the Telegram app, Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to his US allies, including Trump and the US state department, for resolving the operational issue: “The most important development for ‌today is that Starlink ‌and Starshield have resumed operations at their pre-restriction speeds. The speeds are now at the ‌level we need.”

The restoration began overnight. “By this morning, the speeds were already sufficient for operational use,” Zelenskyy said. “This is very important and significant for our frontline logistics and for defending Ukraine against jet-powered Shaheds.”

On Thursday, Trump had claimed the service was running again at full speed, but a European official speaking to the Associated Press denied the service was fully functioning.

When asked by reporters whether he would tell Musk to stop “messing around” with Ukraine’s access to Starlink on Friday, the US president said: “I’ve not spoken to him. I might have to … I’ve heard it was fixed. But if it’s not, I’ll speak to him … If there is a problem, I’ll get it straightened out.”

He then described Musk as a “very brilliant” and “very good” person.

Reuters contributed reporting