The Ukrainian government has yet to receive a response from SpaceX, a Ukrainian official told NBC News, and Ukrainian units are already reporting issues with performance even at lower UAV speeds.
Asked about the importance of the technology, Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to the U.S. Denys Sienik said Starshield is live saving. “The technology helps us save the lives of civilians and prevent more destructions in Ukraine caused by Russian side.”
Drone disruptions
SpaceX had introduced speed limits on the operation of its Starlink satellite internet terminals overnight, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defense tech adviser, Serhii Beskrestnov.
“Our defence forces received no warning of such a restriction, and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” Beskrestnov said on Telegram. “It is obvious that this action cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation,” he added.
An army unit fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said Wednesday it had been forced to cancel some planned operations.
The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Ukrainian air assault forces said it began “noticing Starlink connectivity problems caused by data transfer speed limits” overnight, adding that the changes directly affected drones that use the service for in-flight control.
“The drones kept flying, but the interruptions made them harder to control,” it said in a statement.
Beskrestnov said that restrictions were specifically put on the operation of the military-grade version of Starlink at speeds above 100 mph.
Starlink was also key for Ukraine’s aerial defenses as it was used to intercept the jet-powered drones that Moscow has unleashed on Ukrainian cities in recent months, he added. Asked about the importance of the technology, Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to the U.S. Denys Sienik said “the technology helps us save the lives of civilians and prevent more destruction in Ukraine caused by the Russian side.”
Ukraine has reached out to the U.S. government and SpaceX for clarification on the rationale for the new restrictions but has yet to receive a response, according to a Ukrainian official.
Ukraine’s armed forces learned about the limitations from customer support after filing a complaint regarding operational issues, the official said, adding that SpaceX had not warned of the move.
Ukrainian military units were already reporting issues with drone performance at even lower speeds, the official added.
The White House, SpaceX and Starlink did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
The disruption follows days of mounting tensions between Kyiv and Washington, as Trump pushes to lower gas prices ahead of the midterm elections. Trump’s latest reversal in his bid to settle the war saw him stun Kyiv by striking a diesel deal with Russia that upended years of U.S. sanctions.
He then demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil refineries and called for Zelenskyy to be replaced. Trump also announced an “energy ceasefire” that neither warring side appears to have agreed to.
Kyiv said it had refrained from striking Russian energy targets to respect Trump’s wishes, but the Kremlin has continued to hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure in its annual effort to leave its neighbor in the freezing dark as winter sets in.
Intel uncertainty
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine had not received any early warning from its partners about “a particularly vile ballistic missile strike on Kyiv” a day earlier. Explosions rang out before an alert was issued, according to an NBC News producer in the capital.
“Intelligence on Russian ballistic missile launches helps save lives, and this is one of the most critical issues,” Zelenskyy said, without singling out the U.S.
Later Tuesday, he reported another strike on Kyiv was “the second time Ukraine was not warned.”