Ukraine Says Starlink Connection Is 'Now Stable' After Days of Military Restrictions

Ukraine's defence minister announced on Saturday that his country once again has a "stable connection" to Starlink, ending roughly a week in which the satellite network ran at restricted speeds and disrupted military operations. Minister Yevhenii Khmara said speeds above 400km/h are now possible on the network, which he took as a sign that full capability had been restored.

The speed figure matters because of how Ukraine flies its drones. Kyiv relies on Starlink, and on its military-grade counterpart Starshield, to pilot drones and run operations inside Ukraine. Last week it said the connection had been limited so that drones would lose contact once they reached 161km/h (100mph) or faster. Ukraine accused US President Donald Trump of telling the owner, Elon Musk, to impose the limits.

Trump denied doing so. He then said Musk had "put it back." Musk, for his part, suggested the Pentagon could be behind the recent problems, noting that Starshield is controlled by the US military. Khmara's statement did not settle who was responsible. It said the restored service was "above all important for our front, for our soldiers, for the operation of drones, for logistics and for communications."

The network is central to how Ukraine fights. Its military uses the constellation of 10,000 low Earth orbit satellites extensively, particularly in remote areas of the battlefield. Ukraine uses both the civilian Starlink service and the more secure Starshield. Russia is not authorised to use Starlink, which is why the network does not work when Ukraine sends long-range missiles or drones deep into Russia to hit oil refineries.

Those refinery strikes sit at the center of the wider quarrel. The Starlink problem surfaced during a diplomatic row between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure. Kyiv says the strikes are crucial to cutting the main source of revenue for Moscow's war effort. Trump says they have pushed global prices higher. The attacks have had some effect on global fuel prices, but this year's rises have been driven primarily by the Iran war.

With midterm elections next month, Trump has waived some sanctions on Russia and agreed a deal to import Russian diesel for the US market, a move criticised by Ukraine and its European allies. Zelensky said that, besides seemingly limiting Starlink capability, the US had threatened to withdraw intelligence sharing if the strikes did not stop. Trump denied that as well.

Fighting continued throughout. Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram on Saturday that its air defences shot down 616 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones, which struck a number of regions, including Russian-annexed Crimea. Sergey Aksyonov, the region's Moscow-backed governor, said electricity and water restrictions were imposed because of power cuts caused by the drone strike.

Ukrainian authorities said that in the past 24 hours they hit a missile component manufacturer, a chemical plant and an aircraft at a military airfield inside Russia. They said Russia carried out 88 air strikes on Friday using 309 glide bombs and 10,270 kamikaze drones.

What to watch now is whether the Starlink episode deepens the rift between Washington and Kyiv over the refinery strikes and the future of US intelligence sharing.