Starlink restricted in Ukraine after Trump threats: what we know

Ukraine has run into restrictions on the Starlink satellite network: on Wednesday morning, Zelensky's adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said that SpaceX had limited the speed of terminals overnight. This comes two days after the country stopped receiving US intelligence on incoming Russian missiles, following Donald Trump's criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to Beskrestnov, the connection began dropping out at speeds above 160 km/h. “SpaceX probably did this at the request of the Trump administration,” he believes. Ukrainian drone operators report that several planned operations did not take place overnight on Wednesday because of the slower internet.

This fuels speculation that Trump is taking revenge because, despite his warnings, Ukrainians have been attacking Russian oil refineries in recent weeks. Last Friday, the White House chief agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to buy Russian diesel. And according to Ukrainian negotiators, at meetings in Miami the Americans threatened to stop sharing intelligence and halt deliveries of weapons paid for by European countries.

A heavy blow

For Kyiv this is a serious blow: its drone-war strategy and communications within the army are built on the satellite network. “Thanks to Starlink, I can see in advance where swarms of Russian drones are coming from and in which direction, and I can tell beforehand where the strike is aimed,” a Czech volunteer fighting in Sloviansk in Donbas said recently.

One Ukrainian soldier showed journalists a Starlink terminal mount on a wooden wall in a bunker in the city of Sumy. “Once mice chewed through our cable. It was a big problem, we had no connection for several days,” he recalled.

Without the system, Ukrainians would be “blinded” — just as the Russians were when Elon Musk's company cut off their illegal terminals in occupied Ukrainian territory in February this year. The aggressor suddenly had problems at the front, and many units were left without communications.

A system with no replacement

It is hard to imagine Ukrainian drone defence and strikes aimed at weakening the enemy without Starlink. “Drones are the basis of all operations; none goes ahead without them. Logistics, mine-laying, attacks, surveillance. A drone almost replaces a person already, though of course not completely. It lets you destroy the enemy at a long distance and more safely,” said Ukrainian drone operator Valerii, who lived in Czechia and shared his experience with local drone makers.

Musk has not yet commented on the restriction, but a few days ago he sided with Trump, writing that Zelensky had gone too far. “Hey Elon, big man, are you mixing politics with your services again? We European customers are watching you,” Poland's foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has now written to him on the social network X. It is Warsaw that pays for Starlink for Ukraine — both the operation of the terminals and their maintenance.

“It is hard to say whether Musk has the final word on where to restrict or switch off Starlink. One can assume so, but nobody will confirm it officially, and Musk himself has never commented on it. However, this is not the first time since the start of the war that he has cut off Starlink for Ukrainians. Once he did it because of a Ukrainian strike on Crimea: Ukrainians wanted to hit a port with Russian warships, but had to halt the operation,” recalled digital technology expert David Slížek.

In his view, Starlink is also irreplaceable. “All the other attempts are still very far from the goal. Amazon wants to build its own satellite network, there are European projects, China is doing something, but everything is more or less at the beginning. Nobody is able to provide services like Starlink,” he explained. In the past Zelensky has repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, asked the US government and SpaceX to allow the Ukrainian army to use Starlink for strikes on Russian territory as well.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz