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Ukraine gets full Starshield speeds back as Musk says Kyiv broke Starlink rules
Zelenskyy said the satellite links were working at pre-restriction speeds after more than a week of caps. Elon Musk accused Ukraine's military of using Starlink for offensive drone strikes, a charge Kyiv rejects.
Key points
- Ukraine's defence ministry said Starshield was stable at more than 400 km/h, up from a cap of about 160 km/h.
- Musk said Ukraine's military violated Starlink's terms of service; a Zelenskyy adviser called that physically impossible.
- A Russian drone killed three people in an apartment block in Dnipropetrovsk region as both sides kept up strikes.
Ukraine’s military satellite links were back at full speed on Saturday after more than a week of caps that Kyiv says hobbled its drone crews and air defences, but the relief came with a fresh row as Elon Musk accused Ukraine of breaking Starlink’s rules.
“The main thing for today is that Starlink and Starshield have resumed operations at their pre-restriction speeds,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that speeds had begun returning to normal overnight.
The defence ministry said Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink service, was now working on equipment moving at more than 400 km/h. Since mid-October it had been capped at about 160 km/h, which Ukrainian officials say made it far harder to chase down Russian jet-powered drones. “We record a speed of more than 400 km/h, the connection is stable,” the ministry said, crediting “direct dialogue and the persistent position of the President of Ukraine”. Defence Minister Yevhen Khmara said it would keep monitoring both systems.
Musk’s charge
Musk, whose company owns Starlink, offered a different account. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people,” he wrote, saying the loophole had been closed the week before.
Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said Ukraine was “physically unable” to use Starlink for long and medium-range attack drones, which fly at around 70 to 90 km/h, well under the cap.
No one has publicly said who ordered the restrictions. US President Donald Trump has denied any role. “I have not spoken to him,” he said of Musk. “I’ve heard it’s fixed. If it’s not, I will speak to him.” Senator Richard Blumenthal has opened an inquiry asking the Pentagon who ordered the caps and how much the US military relies on Starlink.
The dispute has added to strains between Kyiv and Washington, already tense over Trump’s temporary lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel and his suggestion that someone other than Zelenskyy should negotiate for Ukraine.
Strikes on both sides
The fighting did not pause. On Saturday a Russian drone hit an apartment building in the Synelnykove district of Dnipropetrovsk region, killing three people and injuring at least 12, among them an 11-year-old girl, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. Earlier, a missile strike on Lozova in Kharkiv region killed one man.
Ukraine reached deep into Russia. In Omsk in Siberia, about 2,500 km from the border, Governor Vitaliy Khotsenko confirmed a drone attack on a logistics hub. “Personnel were promptly evacuated,” he said. Ukrainian monitoring channels said a synthetic rubber plant and a warehouse of the online retailer Ozon were also hit. Industrial sites in Togliatti were damaged, and in Oryol, where Kyiv says it struck the Proton electronics plant, the regional governor reported three deaths.
Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, and a local ceasefire around occupied Oleshky, brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, is due to begin on Tuesday.