Starlink speeds restored in Ukraine as Musk accuses Kyiv of misuse

Update, 25 Oct 2026: Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed. Elon Musk said SpaceX had restricted the service and accused Ukraine's military of violating Starlink's terms by using it for offensive drone strikes, a claim Kyiv rejects, the Kyiv Independent, CNN and PBS reported. Details are in the new section below.

Update, 24 Oct 2026: President Donald Trump said on Thursday, 22 October, that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine's Starlink access, but Kyiv said at the time that the speed limits were still in place, NBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told him the US will work to undo a slowdown of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine, which Kyiv says has crippled the drones it uses to shoot down Russian attack drones, Forbes and other outlets reported.

But who ordered the slowdown, and whether it has been lifted, are both disputed. Reports have pointed at Elon Musk and at the White House; Musk says such decisions belong to the US military and the president; and Rubio says nobody in the US ordered it.

Key points

• Update, 24 October: Ukraine's Defence Ministry says Starlink and Starshield work at speeds above 400 km/h again; Zelenskyy says speeds "are now where they need to be".
• Musk says Ukraine's military "violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people"; Ukrainian officials say that was technically impossible.
• Ukraine says Starlink now cuts out above about 161 km/h (100 mph), so its interceptor drones lose their link before they can catch Russia's fast Shahed drones.
• Zelenskyy says Rubio told him the State Department would work to lift the slowdown.
• Rubio says nobody in the US ordered it, it was not deliberate and, to his understanding, service has been restored. Kyiv says it is still limited.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk ordered the cap; Reuters reported the instruction came from inside the White House. Both have been denied.
• Update, 22 to 23 October: Trump said Musk had "put it back"; Zelenskyy's adviser said no lifting of restrictions had been seen.
• The dispute comes as the US pushes for new peace talks with Russia in November.

What Ukraine says is happening

Ukraine uses Starlink, the satellite internet service of Elon Musk's SpaceX, across its armed forces, from command posts to drones. In particular, its interceptor drones, which hunt Russia's jet-powered Shahed attack drones, rely on Starlink to stay connected.

Zelenskyy told Bloomberg on 18 October that Starlink in Ukraine now cuts out at speeds above about 161 km/h, Euromaidan Press reported. Kyiv says that means its interceptors lose their connection at speeds too low to catch the Shaheds. Ukraine says its Starshield terminals, the military version of the service, are capped too.

After a call with Rubio on 20 October, Zelenskyy wrote that the Starlink and Starshield situation still "needs to be restored", and thanked Rubio for his readiness to help. He later told Fox News that Rubio had said the State Department would work to lift the slowdown, but that Starlink was still limited.

What Rubio says

Rubio has given a different account:

• 17 October: He said nobody in the US had ordered Starlink slowed, that the slowdown "wasn't deliberate", and that his understanding was that service had been restored, Euromaidan Press reported.
• Starlink vs Starshield: He said Ukraine's drones run on commercial Starlink, and that Starshield is not available to Ukraine. Kyiv's request for Starshield for strikes deep inside Russia is under discussion.
• 21 October: He said the US "cannot direct a private company" on its decisions, Newsweek reported.
• He called a Reuters report that the White House ordered the slowdown "categorically false".

Who ordered the slowdown?

The accounts conflict:

None of these accounts has been independently confirmed, and the White House has not said whether officials other than the president were involved.

Update, 25 October: speeds restored, Musk accuses Ukraine

Ukraine confirmed on Saturday, 24 October, that full speed had returned. "We record a speed of more than 400 kilometers per hour, the connection is stable," Ukraine's Defence Ministry said, adding that it would keep monitoring the service, the Kyiv Independent reported. President Zelenskyy said: "The speeds are now where they need to be," and thanked Americans, Congress, the State Department and the president.

Elon Musk then went on the attack. He wrote on X that Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people", and said "that loophole was closed last week", the Kyiv Independent, CNN and PBS reported. He also wrote: "Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately." OPB and CBC reported that Musk acknowledged SpaceX had restricted the service, while he linked the restriction to the US government, which the Trump administration has denied.

Ukrainian officials rejected Musk's claim:

• Serhii Sternenko, a former Defence Ministry adviser, said: "As someone who was inside the process at the Ministry of Defense, I can say with certainty that this is not true." He said whitelists introduced in February meant mobile terminals had to be registered on a special list tied to Starshield, making drone strikes over commercial Starlink "technically impossible", the Kyiv Independent reported.
• Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said commercial Starlink terminals in Ukraine are limited to about 70 to 90 km/h and do not work over Russian territory: "Thus, we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes and medium-range strikes."

In Washington, US Senator Richard Blumenthal opened an inquiry on 23 October into who ordered the restrictions, the Kyiv Independent reported. The question of who decided to slow the service, and why, is now at the centre of the row.

Update, 22 to 23 October: Trump says access restored, Kyiv disagrees

On Thursday, 22 October, Trump told reporters that Musk had restored Ukraine's Starlink access. "The bottom line, he put it back," he said, declining to say whether the two had spoken, NBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift the speed restrictions, telling him he was frustrated that speeds remained capped. US and Ukrainian officials told the Journal that the service worked more normally after the call, though some Ukrainians said it was faster but not fully restored, NBC News reported.

Kyiv pushed back. Zelenskyy said on Thursday that speeds had not been restored. On Friday, his adviser Serhii Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram: "At present, we have not observed any lifting of restrictions on Starlink." He said isolated cases of faster service were likely down to SpaceX's algorithms or usage conditions, not a removal of the limits, NBC News and the Kyiv Independent reported. A Ukrainian official said the military service still cut out at about 161 km/h, Al Jazeera reported.

Rubio, for his part, has said decisions on Ukraine's Starlink access are for SpaceX and Musk, not the White House.

Starlink and Starshield, explained

• Starlink is SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, using thousands of small satellites in low orbit. Users connect with a flat dish that can be set up almost anywhere. It has been widely used in Ukraine since 2022.
• Starshield is a separate SpaceX business that provides satellite services to governments and militaries, with extra security features. It is contracted through the US government.

Because both are run by a private company but are closely tied to US government contracts and policy, decisions about who can use them, and how, can be hard to trace. This is not the first time Starlink's role in Ukraine has caused controversy: In 2023, Musk said he had refused a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink near Crimea for an attack on Russian ships, a decision that drew sharp criticism in Kyiv.

Why it matters for Ukraine's air defence

Russia launches large waves of Shahed drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. Ukraine has increasingly turned to cheap interceptor drones to shoot down the Shaheds, saving its expensive air defence missiles for ballistic and cruise missiles.

If the interceptors cannot keep a connection at high speed, Ukraine loses one of its most cost-effective defences. An interceptor drone can cost a small fraction of an air defence missile, which is why Ukraine has built them in large numbers, and why a limit on their connection is such a serious problem for its air defence. Ukraine's Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat also said Ukraine received no warning from partners before the first of two Russian ballistic missile waves overnight on 18 to 19 October, Euromaidan Press reported.

The diplomatic backdrop

The Starlink row comes at a delicate moment. On 21 October, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to resume three-way talks with the US and Ukraine after 10 November, after meeting US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg. Read our report: Putin agrees to restart Ukraine talks after Witkoff meeting.

Relations between Washington and Kyiv have also been strained over US pressure on Ukraine to agree a deal, and over a US diesel arrangement with Russia earlier this month.

Why it matters for India

The episode is a reminder of how much modern militaries now depend on private technology companies, a question India is also weighing.

• Satellite internet in India: Starlink has said it is ready to launch in India, and Reliance Jio has pushed back, as we reported in Starlink says it's ready for India; Reliance hits back. Satellite internet providers in India must meet licensing and security conditions set by the government before they can start commercial service.
• Strategic autonomy: The Ukraine case shows the risk for any country whose forces rely on a foreign company's network: access can change because of decisions taken far away. That is one reason India has invested in its own satellites for communication and positioning, including NavIC, the regional positioning system built by ISRO, which India uses as an alternative to the US GPS.

For Ukraine, the question is not only who ordered the slowdown, but how quickly it can be undone before the next wave of Russian drones.