Ukrainian military units have recorded “significant disruptions” to Starshield — SpaceX’s military-grade satellite service, built on the Starlink network — over several days, along the entire front line and in Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
He said the restrictions were systematic speed limits, not random errors, and a Ukrainian military investigation concluded they were systematic. Terminals were effectively limited to 161 km/h (100 mph), disconnecting anything moving faster, which complicates the interception of Russian jet-powered drones.
SpaceX told CNN there had been no change in its service. Elon Musk had previously acknowledged that SpaceX throttled the service in Ukraine for about a week, saying it could not be used for offensive strikes against Russia.
On the same day, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, after two days of US-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi — the first direct talks between the two sides in nine months.
The Abu Dhabi talks produced no major breakthrough, aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, the exact number of which was not announced. After the Kremlin meeting, the envoys were due to fly to Dublin to meet Zelenskyy.
Source: CNN, Associated Press (via Military.com)
The featured image is illustrative only, not a photo of the actual events.
