Ukraine's military is once again facing speed limits on Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said military units detected restrictions that cut off drones moving faster than 161 kph (100 mph), along the entire front line and in Russian-occupied territory, and that a military investigation found the limits were not random errors. On Friday he said there are still "no clear explanations."
The cap matters most against Russia's jet-powered drones, the targets Ukraine's interceptor drones are built to chase. "Without the speed we need, shooting down these Shaheds becomes much harder, and this means more Russian strikes get through and more of our people are killed," Zelenskyy said in a video posted Thursday. Ukrainian officials are asking the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon and SpaceX to explain and fix the restrictions. SpaceX has denied making any change, with one official saying, "This is false. There has been no change."S1S2
The restrictions come as Russia launched 117 drones at Ukraine overnight into Friday, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old, according to Ukrainian authorities. In Kyiv, a strike hit a medical facility of Ukraine's National Academy of Medical Sciences around 3 a.m., injuring one person and forcing staff to evacuate 30 patients. One person was killed in Odesa, and in Zaporizhzhia a single attack hit two apartment blocks and wounded 30 people, including six children.S1S2
In Washington, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina expressed outrage. In a joint statement they said Congress must determine who ordered or approved the disruptions, and called on the Pentagon and SpaceX to preserve all records and turn over contracts and communications. It remains unclear whether the Pentagon or Musk is calling the shots, and this is not the first time such disruptions have occurred. Last month Musk acknowledged that SpaceX had throttled Starlink service in Ukraine for about a week, and earlier wrote on X that limits on Starshield are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS." In late October, the Pentagon's inspector general turned down a bipartisan request from senators to investigate those disruptions.S1S2
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with Zelenskyy in Dublin this week. More talks are planned, and the envoys say European negotiators will join the next round. So far, however, the talks have yet to stop the strikes.S1S2
