Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said speed restrictions on Starlink satellite internet terminals and on Starshield, the military version of the system, remain in force in Ukraine — a direct contradiction of US President Donald Trump’s statement that SpaceX founder Elon Musk had lifted them. Zelensky spoke in a video address to the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank; his comments were carried by the news agency Interfax-Ukraine and relayed by the independent outlet Meduza on 23 October.
Key facts
- Zelensky said the speed limits on Starlink and Starshield are still there and that speed has not been restored, in Meduza’s account of his Hudson Institute address.
- Trump said Musk had restored Ukraine’s Starlink access, speaking after The Wall Street Journal, the US newspaper, reported that he had phoned Musk to ask for the limits to be lifted, Yahoo reported.
- Ukrainian military personnel first ran into the Starshield restrictions on 14 October, per Meduza.
- The connection drops above 160 kilometres per hour, which Yahoo renders as 100 mph, while Kyiv wants the system to keep working at 249 mph, per Yahoo.
- Musk denies responsibility for the Starshield limits and says the US government controls that system; Secretary of State Marco Rubio said commercial Starlink access decisions sit with SpaceX, Yahoo reported.
Why it matters
Ukraine leans heavily on the Starlink network for battlefield communications, drones and air defence operations, per Yahoo, which reports the restrictions as a problem for military units rather than for subscribers. Both outlets describe limits that apply to how fast a terminal may move and to the Starshield military system; neither reports any change to Starlink prices, tariffs or civilian sign-ups in Ukraine. The dispute has also fed pressure in Europe to reduce dependence on the network.
Zelensky said the restrictions had complicated the situation even as Ukrainian forces kept up what he called “quite successful” operations at the front. “The speed limits on Starlink and Starshield are still there,” he said in the passage Meduza carried, adding that speed “has not been restored.” He said the front line was “holding” and that Ukraine was doing “its best” to keep logistics working.
What Ukraine says is still blocked
The complaint Ukrainian personnel raised on 14 October, in Meduza’s telling, was that the connection cut out once drones passed 160 kilometres per hour. Yahoo cites the same cutoff as 100 mph, with Ukrainian officials describing lost connectivity when equipped vehicles or drones travelled faster than that, and puts Kyiv’s stated requirement at equipment moving up to 249 mph — a figure that matters most for high-speed drone interception. On those numbers, the service cuts out at 100 mph against a requirement of 249 mph.
The 160 km/h cutoff and Musk’s denial of responsibility appear in both Meduza and Yahoo. The 249 mph requirement is carried by Yahoo alone, and the Telegraph, Wall Street Journal and NBC News material below reaches the reader secondhand through one of those two outlets rather than from the original reports.
The public accounts diverge from there. Trump, speaking on Thursday in remarks carried by NBC News and cited by Yahoo, said the bottom line was that Musk had put the service back. Zelensky’s position, in both reports, is that full military functionality has not returned.
Who ordered the slowdown remains disputed
The reporting on who imposed the limits is contradictory, and neither source resolves it. Two days after the 14 October complaints, Trump said he had not ordered Starshield service in Ukraine to be restricted and did not know who could have done so, Meduza noted.
The Telegraph, the British newspaper, reported that Musk had approached Trump with a proposal to slow Starlink speeds in Ukraine, citing four sources — a claim Meduza relays alongside a later Wall Street Journal report that Musk had ordered the Starshield service restricted. Musk, in Yahoo’s account, rejects responsibility for Starshield and maintains that Washington sets the rules for the military system.
Rubio’s statement, also via Yahoo, places commercial Starlink decisions with SpaceX, leaving the network’s military and consumer sides under different claimed authorities. Kyiv, meanwhile, has been trying to reopen the contractual side of the arrangement, a thread covered in Starlink News reporting on Kyiv’s push for fresh talks over the Starshield contract.
Calls for an investigation in Washington
Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick has called for an investigation into the Starshield slowdown, saying officials should establish who ordered the restrictions, Yahoo reported.
Background: a wider rift
The latest disagreement follows an earlier disruption that reportedly forced Ukrainian troops to adjust their military operations, and Zelensky had previously accused the United States of abandoning Ukraine after Starlink restrictions hit his forces, per Yahoo. Meduza places the 14 October reports amid a sharp deterioration in relations between Zelensky and Trump — tensions Yahoo links to Trump’s recent waiver of certain sanctions on Russia, which drew criticism from Kyiv and from some Republican lawmakers. Musk’s own stance on the programme has been public and contested, as seen in Musk’s own public posts about Starlink aid to Ukraine.
Zelensky tied the connectivity problem to the tempo of Russian attacks, telling the Hudson Institute audience that Russia strikes Ukraine “massively and almost daily.” No change to the restrictions has been reported since those remarks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have SpaceX or Musk responded to Zelensky’s 23 October remarks?
Neither Meduza nor Yahoo records any SpaceX or Musk reply to that specific address. The only position attributed to Musk in those reports is his broader denial that he controls Starshield.
What else did Zelensky say was being held up?
Deliveries of already-agreed interceptors meant to defend Ukraine against Russian ballistic missiles were still delayed, he told the Hudson Institute, according to Meduza. He said he hoped they were on the way and called the hold-up a real problem.
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