KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Elon Musk said on Saturday that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations that the country relies on to defend itself against Russia.
Musk’s admission on social media came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.
Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.
“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and were sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.
This isn’t new though, that’s what he said when it happened.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/14/ukraine-soldiers-combat-access-starlink-satellite-internet-restricted
I’m not going to look too hard for it but he also said (maybe on Twitter, I don’t have an account so I can’t look) that he was limiting access to starlink for projectiles going > 100 miles/hr.It’s still not clear to me what systems are using what network and if they knew about the restrictions.
Eta:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2110445577184133456
I am likely mistaken about Musk saying speeds were limited so I struck that from my original comment.
This is all getting confusing, and its on purpose, and the media doesnt help by not distinguishing starlink and starshield.
The latest as i understand it.
Starlink: commercial / consumer service. Must not be used to kill people. Cannot be used in Russia (its geofenced). Has speed (movement) limits.
Starshield: military version of starlink owned by US government, which can do whatever they want with it. There are no limits.
Musk is alleging that Ukraine somehow violated the terms of Starlink and were able to by pass the speed limits and geofence on it and used it as a weapon of war. He is also saying he did not alter starshield, only starlink.
Ukraine is saying fuck that we didnt break the terms on starlink, we’ve been using starshield for war purposes and Starshield was what got fucked up. We only use starlink for communication purposes as allowed.
Trump administration is saying we didn’t alter starshield.
So clearly Musk or Trump is lying. Someone altered Starshield, and I very much doubt Ukraine hacked starlink to bypass restrictions when they could just use starshield.
That’s good info, thank you.
Last I’d seen Donald and Elon were pointing the finger at each other and we didn’t know definitively.