Restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield satellite communications system are hindering its ability to intercept Russian drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. He warned that limitations on the system, operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, could weaken defenses around Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months, when Moscow has repeatedly targeted the power grid. Ukraine's interceptor drones continue to lose contact with their operators when flying faster than 161 kph (100 mph) along the front line and over Russian-occupied territory, leaving them unable to catch Russian Shahed drones, Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy wrote on social media that Ukraine is counting on the restrictions to be lifted, saying the protection of lives and energy infrastructure before winter depends on it. He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the President's Office had been instructed to work closely with the American side and SpaceX. Zelenskyy questioned on Saturday whether the problem was technical, saying the restrictions appeared to have been imposed by SpaceX despite earlier assurances from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Starshield was more under U.S. government control.S1S2
Elsewhere, a Russian strike on Chornomorsk, a port city in Ukraine's Odesa region, injured six people and damaged energy infrastructure, regional head Oleh Kiper said Sunday on Telegram. The blast and falling debris also damaged a gas pipeline and nearby residential buildings, while two parked cars caught fire. The strike hit a facility operated by DTEK Odesa Electric Networks, temporarily leaving about 41,000 customers without power. Overnight Russian airstrikes on Zaporizhzhia injured six more people, including a 2-year-old boy, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 2,300 drones, 1,590 guided aerial bombs and 15 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.S1S2
Ukrainian drone strikes, meanwhile, damaged two electrical substations in Russia's Rostov region, killing a chief engineer, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said Sunday. Four people were injured when drone debris fell on their cars, and a fifth was wounded when debris struck a production facility in the village of Troitskoye. Ukrainian forces also targeted Russia's Tatarstan region, where Nizhnekamsk mayor Radmir Belyaev said a large-scale and prolonged attack damaged the industrial zone, injuring six people and disrupting heating and hot water supplies in parts of the city. Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 533 Ukrainian drones overnight across 13 Russian regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.S1S2
