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SpaceX Restores Starlink Service in Ukraine After Throttling
· Confirmed
In Short: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acknowledged on Saturday that his company had throttled Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations the country relies on for defense against Russia.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acknowledged on Saturday that his company had throttled Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations the country relies on for defense against Russia. Musk said on X that Ukraine had violated the service's terms of use by employing Starlink for offensive drone strikes, which he claimed was never allowed.
The throttling of Starlink began on October 13, 2026, when Ukrainian government officials and military forces reported that the military-grade Starlink service was being throttled for terminals exceeding speeds of about 99 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour). According to Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the throttling made the service unstable even at lower speeds, such as 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour).
The Ukrainian government maintains that Starlink was throttled due to Musk's political inclinations, while Musk claims that Ukraine violated the service's terms of use. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Starlink and Starshield, the militarized version of Elon Musk's satellite internet system, was working at full speed as of the morning of Oct. 24, after it had previously been limited to 161 kilometers per hour (about 100 miles per hour).
The head of hardware R&D at the Ukrainian defense company BlueBird Tech, who provided comments to Ars Technica anonymously for security reasons, noted that Starlink currently offers some of the best satellite coverage available, with virtually no competitors when you consider the combination of cost, availability, and ease of use. However, even before the latest Starlink disruptions, Ukrainian companies and their Western partners had begun deploying more drones that reduce or eliminate communications reliance on Starlink.
The US government and European countries such as Poland and Germany have paid SpaceX for tens of thousands of commercial Starlink terminals to be sent to Ukraine, as well as covering subscription fees. Starlink terminals have also been deployed on Ukrainian ground robots and drone boats operating in the contested Black Sea, in addition to supporting many different aerial drone operations on the battlefield.
The new Starlink speed limits reportedly interfered with Ukraine’s air defenses that use fast-moving drone interceptors to take down Russian one-way attack drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The US government has also given Ukraine’s military access to a military-grade version of Starlink known as Starshield, which Ukrainian defense companies can test in their technologies in cooperation with the military.
The EU is working on a new network to rival Starlink, Iris², however it won't be up and running until 2029. Meanwhile, questions have persisted about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow's attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine's Starlink-based systems are fully functional again.
SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell confirmed reports in February 2023 that Musk’s company was taking steps to block Ukraine’s military from using Starlink with drones. SpaceX went live with a system that only allowed Starlink systems on an approved “white list” to access the internet in Ukraine at the start of February.
The US President Donald Trump reportedly asked Musk to remove restrictions affecting Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite internet services, following concerns that reduced connectivity was disrupting Ukrainian military operations. Trump defended Musk on Starlink disturbances, saying he'll 'never do anything wrong.'
What this adds
The throttling of Starlink in Ukraine highlights the risk of relying on a single foreign provider for critical wartime communications. Analysts have warned that Taiwan should not rely on a single foreign satellite provider for such needs, after sudden restrictions on the use of Elon Musk’s Starlink disrupted Ukrainian drone operations.
Background
The Ukrainian government maintains that Starlink was throttled due to Musk's political inclinations, while Musk claims that Ukraine violated the service's terms of use.
What's confirmed
- “Starlink currently offers some of the best satellite coverage available, with virtually no competitors when you consider the combination of cost, availability, and ease of use,” according to the head of hardware R&D at the Ukrainian defense company BlueBird Tech, who provided comments to Ars anonymously for security reasons.
- Amid the ongoing Russia- Ukraine war, Elon Musk said Kyiv violated the terms of SpaceX ’s commercial Starlink service by using it for offensive drone strikes, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Starlink and Starshield operations had been restored to the speeds available before recent restrictions were imposed.
- Ukrainian drones flying faster than about 160 km/h began losing their satellite link this week, and Kyiv says the cutoff came from Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
- At the start of February, SpaceX went live with a system that only allowed Starlink systems on an approved “white list” to access the internet in Ukraine.
- Two telecom companies signed pacts with SpaceX last year to bring Starlink internet services to country India on Thursday denied Elon Musk's claim that “certain oligarchs” were blocking Starlink's satellite communication services in the country to maintain their monopoly, terming it baseless.
- US President Donald Trump has reportedly asked SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk to remove restrictions affecting Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite internet services, following concerns that reduced connectivity was disrupting Ukrainian military operations.
- 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.
- A previously unreported order by Elon Musk to cut satellite internet coverage over parts of Ukraine disrupted a key counteroffensive by Kyiv in the autumn of 2022.
- Employees then complied, deactivating at least 100 Starlink terminals.
- "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote on X, claiming that Ukraine had "violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
- The tech mogul acknowledged the decision online shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that connectivity across both Starlink and Starshield services had returned to previous levels following a week-long disruption to combat operations.
- However, this information is not true, as Starlink operates under certain restrictions, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov. "It's very strange that Elon Musk doesn't know about the restrictions on Starlink's operation in Ukraine," Flash wrote. According to him, since the winter of 2026, all Starlink terminals over Ukrainian territory, including occupied areas, have been subject to a speed limit of 70–90 km/h. Starlink does not operate over the territory of the Russian Federation. "Therefore, we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes and medium-range strikes," the Ukrainian president's adviser stressed.
What's still developing
- That reversal by SpaceX finally came after bipartisan calls for more congressional oversight over Musk’s “space monopoly” and criticism from European leaders.
- But with Starlink having become increasingly unreliable due to Musk’s political inclinations and the latest surprise disruptions to service in Ukraine, the Ukrainians and Europe as a whole are now facing urgent questions about how to move forward without it.
- As the world’s largest communications satellite network, Starlink can typically support high-speed Internet and data streams for any user or vehicle equipped with a relatively compact Starlink terminal.
- “At present, we have not observed any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posted to Facebook on Friday.
- Musk said on social media that “certain oligarchs” were allegedly trying to prevent Starlink from entering the Indian market in order to protect their dominant positions.
- Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters Key Points The Indian government refuted Elon Musk's allegations that Starlink's satcom services are being blocked unfairly.
- The government on Thursday rejected Elon Musk's allegation that Starlink's plans in India were being blocked by “certain oligarchs”, saying the country's regulatory framework for satellite communication is fair and non-discriminatory.
- The worst crisis in US-Ukraine relations since last year’s Oval Office meltdown is deteriorating further over a dispute about who ordered a disruption to a critical Ukrainian military system running on Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service.
- “The encirclement stalled entirely,” the military official said.
- On the company’s internal systems, the hexagon-shaped cells indicating Starlink connectivity in those regions went dark, including some parts of Donetsk province further east that were also under Russian control.
- Surveillance drones lost connection, artillery coordination broke down, and battlefield targeting suffered without Starlink support.
- Vào giai đoạn đầu của cuộc xung đột Nga - Ukraine, Starlink đã giúp Ukraine ngăn chặn nguy cơ khi các hệ thống thông tin liên lạc khác bị Nga phá hủy hoặc bóp nghẹt.