Starlink back to normal in Ukraine after week of throttling

Starlink back to normal in Ukraine after week of throttling

KYIV: Ukraine again has a “stable connection” to Starlink, the government said on Saturday, after days of tensions with Washington over the SpaceX-made network crucial to the Ukrainian army’s operations. Kyiv relies on the civilian Starlink satellite communications system and the military-grade Starshield version as it tries to defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks. “Monitoring systems are recording a reco­very in the speed of Starlink/Starshield. We are registering a speed of more than 400 km/h, the connection is stable,” Defence Min­­i­­ster Yevgeniy Khmara said in a statement. “This result is above all important for our front, for our soldiers, for the operation of drones, for logistics and for communications,” he added. “Right now, the speed is what we need. The restoration began during the night,” he said on social media. “This is very important; it’s significant for our frontline logistics, for protecting Ukraine” from rocket-powered drones, he stressed. The satellite network has been at the centre of a row between Ukraine and the United States. Zelensky had accused Washington of helping Russia by failing to warn Kyiv of incoming missile strikes and hobbling its military response by throttling Starlink’s speed. Trump’s Russia ‘deal’ Khmara credited Zelensky’s “firm stance” on the issue, judging that it was “bearing fruit”. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would speak to tech tycoon Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, if Kyiv was having problems with the communications platform. Trump had said that Musk had restored access. While Musk has shifted stance on Ukraine many times since Russia’s invasion in 2022, he has insisted that any disruption was the responsibility of the US government, not SpaceX. Problems with Elon Musk’s SpaceX-owned systems came after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel while pressing Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries. Ukrainian officials said the restrictions, which capped operations at speeds of 160 kilometres per hour (kph), hampered the military’s ability to intercept Russian attack drones and forced the cancellation of some operations. “The main thing for today is that Starlink and Starshield have resumed operations at their pre-restriction speeds. The speeds are now at the level we need,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram app. According to Zelensky, the speeds started returning to normal overnight. Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Saturday the connection remained stable at over 400 kph. Ukraine does not rely on the systems for long-range drone operations on Russian territory, including attacks on refineries. But Starlink remains vital for frontline communications, and the deployment of Starshield-enabled medium-range attack drones has helped Ukraine gain the upper hand in several areas of the battlefield this year. Limitation order The restrictions sparked outrage in Ukraine, particularly as they coincided with disruptions to allied warnings about incoming Russian missile attacks. Kyiv later said it continued to receive US intelligence. Neither Musk nor the US government has acknowledged responsibility for restricting Starlink or Starshield in Ukraine. Both have said publicly that any such decision could only have been taken by the other. Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2026