Starlink Restored
Ukraine says its Starlink connection is stable again after a week of restricted drone speeds tied to a dispute with the US.
Ukraine's military has Starlink back. Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said Saturday the connection is stable again, a week after satellite internet speeds were throttled. Not anymore. Drone links once capped near 100 mph now run above 250 mph, Khmara said, according to BBC News and NPR. Ukraine's defense ministry said its own monitoring systems confirmed the restored speeds, NPR reported.
The slowdown started more than a week earlier. Drone flights, logistics and frontline communications across Ukraine all took the hit, BBC News reported. It surfaced amid a clash between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, BBC News said.
Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX runs Starlink, posted in a series of messages on X that SpaceX had closed a "loophole" Ukraine used to dodge the restrictions, NBC News reported. Using Starlink, a civilian service, for offensive drone strikes "has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote. Limits on the military grade Starshield system, he added separately, are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."
Trump denied ordering the restrictions. He said Musk had "put it back," according to BBC News. Asked by reporters who ordered the limits, Trump declined to answer, NPR reported. He defended Musk anyway, saying, "Elon will never do anything wrong. I know him very well. He's a fair person," per NPR.
Zelensky said on X that the restoration began overnight, thanking "all Americans," including members of Congress, the State Department and Trump, NPR reported. Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said Ukraine is "physically unable" to use Starlink for long range strikes inside Russia, since the network doesn't operate over Russian territory, NBC News reported.
The dispute landed alongside wider friction between Washington and Kyiv. Trump's administration waived some sanctions on Russia and agreed to a deal importing Russian diesel, a move Ukraine and its European allies criticized, BBC News reported.
Russia and Ukraine kept trading strikes. Over the past week, Russia launched roughly 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles and nearly 2,300 attack drones at Ukraine, Zelensky said, according to NBC News.
Russia agreed to a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and the United States next month, NPR reported. The two sides also agreed to a localized ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, brokered by First Lady Melania Trump, according to NPR.
"This result is important, above all, for our front line, for service members, for drone operations, logistics, and communications," Khmara said, per NPR.