Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links is back to pre-disruption speeds, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, ending more than a week of degraded service that hampered front-line operations.
“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. He said restoration began overnight and was sufficient by Saturday morning, improving logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.
The fix comes amid a fresh U.S. push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way talks with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s Kherson region, brokered by first lady Melania Trump.
The restrictions hit Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade version of Starlink and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communications. Commanders reported lost drones and disrupted missions during the outage, alarming Ukraine’s military and government.
The episode piled onto existing friction between Kyiv and Washington, already strained by President Donald Trump’s reported deal with Moscow on Russian diesel imports — something Ukraine viewed as a betrayal.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara credited “direct dialogue” and Zelenskyy’s diplomacy with Washington for the fix, saying the outcome mattered most “for our front, for the military, the work of drones, logistics and communications.”
As recently as Friday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was still dealing with speed limits on the satellite systems.
Nobody has publicly taken responsibility for ordering the interruptions to the Elon Musk-built network. Trump says he didn’t order it and that Musk shouldn’t be blamed. Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have both denied the administration was involved.
Strikes Continue on Both Sides
A missile attack on Lozova, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, killed one person and wounded two others, local officials said Saturday.
Moscow-installed authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea reported power blackouts Saturday following overnight Ukrainian strikes.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit a chemical plant in Tolyatti, Russia, that produces materials used in rocket fuel. Tolyatti Mayor Ilya Sukhikh confirmed the overnight attack damaged industrial facilities there.
Ukrainian forces also struck an electronics plant in Oryol, Russia, which the General Staff says manufactures components for the cruise and ballistic missiles Russia fires at Ukrainian cities. Local officials said three people were killed in that attack, which happened Friday.
Ukrainian drones reached as far as Russia’s Omsk region in western Siberia — more than 2,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Omsk Gov. Vitaly Khotsenko said drones “reached a northern industrial hub.” Online retailer Ozon confirmed a drone attack on its logistics center in Omsk, with no casualties reported. Ozon competes with Wildberries, whose facilities Ukraine has also targeted in the past.
