Ukraine’s access to military-grade Starlink services appears to have been at least partially restored on Thursday, a day after Kyiv was stunned by sudden speed limits that it said hamstrung some drone operations.
Ukrainian defense ministry sources told Business Insider that Starshield services remained functional while in motion as of roughly 11:45 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to reports that they had received from military units.
The sources said the defense ministry is working to understand how and why there was a disruption to the operation of Starshield, SpaceX’s dedicated satellite network for military services.
Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security, defense, and intelligence committee, told Business Insider that Starshield services had been restored to their pre-disruption capacity.
Ukrainian officials and service members were caught off guard on Wednesday by the unexpected Starshield disruption, which they said restricted speeds above 100 miles per hour. Some units experienced a loss of connection at speeds as low as 45 miles per hour.
The full extent of the service limitation remains unclear.
Yuriy, an officer with Ukraine’s National Guard, told Business Insider that his units use Starshield to support drone operations and that speeds were back above 100 miles per hour as of Thursday morning. He asked to be identified only by his first name for security purposes.
However, Yuriy said that several operations were disrupted during the earlier restrictions.
Defense ministry sources said the disruption complicated mid-range strikes, air defense intercepts, and front-line logistics. Starlink does not work inside Russia, so the issue was limited to missions in Ukrainian territory or Russian-occupied territory.
Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images
The sudden Starlink disruption caused widespread confusion and raised questions about the source of the decision and whether it was connected to tensions between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Kyiv’s targeting of Russian energy facilities.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has responded to requests for comment.
Ukrainian forces use Starlink, the commercial satellite internet service run by SpaceX, and Starshield, a secure network for military and government work built by the company but operated by the US government. Some Ukrainian officials initially blamed SpaceX for the disruption.
In an X post on Wednesday responding to Ukraine’s former defense minister, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote put the issue on the Trump administration, saying that Starshield was “owned and controlled by the American government.” He said “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
Sprawling influence
The outage and impact on front-line operations have called attention to Ukraine’s deep dependence on Starlink, which has become critical for battlefield communications and drone warfare.
As Business Insider recently reported, Starlink’s rapid expansion has given Musk and SpaceX an enormous source of influence and soft power, and the world’s richest man has not been shy about using that power in Ukraine to influence the course of the war.
Musk said in 2023 that he refused a request from Ukraine’s military to activate Starlink to assist a Ukrainian assault on the occupied Crimean peninsula. Earlier this year, SpaceX clamped down on Russian forces’ use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine, handing Ukraine a key battlefield advantage.
While support for Ukraine has varied, Musk has consistently been a prominent critic of the Ukrainian president. In an X post late on Wednesday, hours after responding to Ukraine’s defense minister, he wrote that it was “time for Zelenskyy to go.”
The sudden Starlink disruptions came as Ukraine faces growing pressure from the US, with Trump pushing Kyiv to halt its strikes on Russian energy facilities. The US president said on Tuesday that Washington had not cut intelligence sharing with Ukraine, another concern for the country.
Cherniev, the Ukrainian lawmaker, confirmed on Thursday that the US continues to share intelligence with Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its ballistic missile attacks against Ukraine, firing dozens overnight. Recent attacks have targeted Kyiv and Ukrainian energy facilities.
