
Ukrainian officials and drone operators say high-speed internet restrictions on Starshield remain in place.
Ukrainian interceptors cannot use high-speed internet to shoot down Russian drones as speed limits on SpaceX's Starshield remain, despite Donald Trump saying Elon Musk lifted restrictions.
AI-generated summary
Starshield is Starlink's military service utilized by Ukraine for drone operations. Speed limits on the service have affected Ukrainian interceptor capabilities.
KYIV — Ukrainian interceptors still cannot use the internet at high speed to shoot down Russian attack drones or conduct mid-strike operations as of Friday morning, Ukrainian officials and a drone operator said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump said SpaceX founder Elon Musk has lifted speed restrictions on his Starshield service.
“Morning tests show the speed limits of 140–160 km/h are still there, and the navigation isn’t working properly,” a Ukrainian government official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.
“As of this morning, instances of connectivity loss at speeds of 161 km/h are still being observed. There is currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted,” a defense ministry official told reporters on Friday.
Ukrainian drone units started testing speed limits from Thursday evening, shortly after Trump told reporters that Musk had restored Starlink. While some tests recorded speeds of up to 200 km/h over the Black Sea and noted an improvement, the drones still rapidly lost signal once flying above the 160 km/h speed limit.
“So, the key point is: We accelerate above 180 km/h, fly for a couple of minutes, the connection drops. It falls to 140–150 km/h and then is re-established — but the situation is better,” a drone pilot from Ukraine’s top drone unit known as Magyar’s Birds told POLITICO. “So it works better, but with constant connection interruptions,” the pilot, whose call sign is Leon, said.
The speed limit on Starshield, Starlink’s service designed for military purposes, stalled key operations and partially disabled crucial drone interceptors against Russian Shaheds attack drones.
Musk said that the U.S. government controlled Starshield, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the administration could not direct SpaceX or Musk regarding restrictions or slowdowns of Starlink services in Ukraine as it is a private company.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued the Starlink restriction was a planned operation to specifically restrict Starshield’s operating speed over Ukraine. The Ukrainian government said that it was not told why that had happened for days. However, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions.
“I don’t want to say. That’s a very interesting situation. My relationship with Elon is very good. I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called, or someone else called … The bottom line: he put it back,” Trump told reporters on Thursday evening.

Palantir executive Louis Mosley assured European allies that its NATO-used Maven Smart System AI platform contains no kill switch, following concerns sparked by recent disruptions to Ukraine's Starlink services.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence is deploying Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters and military advisers to Saudi Arabia to defend against Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks on critical infrastructure and airports.

Ukraine struck a St. Petersburg oil terminal in a massive drone attack, killing one person, amid escalating infrastructure strikes between Kyiv and Moscow and a suspected drone incident in Lithuania.

Ukrainian drone operations forced the temporary closure of four Moscow airports and St Petersburg's Pulkovo, leading to over 160 flight cancellations. Russian officials claim 94 drones were intercepted over the capital.

President Zelenskyy reported a major Russian attack on Kyiv involving over 100 drones and five ballistic missiles, noting a failure in receiving early warnings from Western partners. The incident follows tensions over U.S.-led intelligence sharing and energy strikes.

Ukrainian forces have successfully derailed a Russian pincer movement aimed at encircling the Donetsk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The operation, including the liberation of Lyman, has forced Russian units onto the defensive.