SpaceX has imposed a speed limit on Starlink terminals used by Ukraine's armed forces, disrupting a number of combat missions, presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said on October 14, adding that the military was given no warning.
The cap applies to terminals in motion under Starshield, the "military package" of SpaceX's satellite service, and is set at 100 mph (160 km/h), Beskrestnov, who advises President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on defence technology, wrote on his Telegram channel. "It is clear that this action cannot be a coincidence and is related to the current political situation," he said.
The restriction lands at a bad moment for Ukraine's armed forces, which are pressing their Vivaldi offensive against Russian positions in Donbas, and for its air defences. Starlink links the interceptor drones Ukraine uses against Russia's jet-powered Geran-4 drones, Beskrestnov warned. SpaceX has not cut the service off, but Ukraine has no alternative network to fall back on.
IntelliNews produced an infographic guide to Ukraine and Russia’s missile and drone arsenals and as the brutal tit-for-tat missile war unfolds it makes grim reading. The combination of Starlink with Ukraine’s bigger drone fleet has been a key military advantage keeping the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the game, but if access to Starlink is removed it will undermine the effectiveness of Ukraine’s drones to find and destroy the enemy troops and materiel.
A source in the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps on the southeastern front confirmed the disruption, Reuters reported. Units on the Huliaipole front lost connection for 10-20 seconds at speeds of 110-120 km/h, the corps said, according to Euromaidan Press, and one unmanned systems unit cancelled some missions. Ukrainian military channels later reported drops at 60-70 km/h across all frontline sectors, which would also catch short-range FPV drones. Ukraine's defence ministry said it was investigating the cause, and SpaceX had not commented by the time of writing.
Elon Musk's network has been the backbone of Ukraine's front-line communications since 2022. In February, at Kyiv's request and after lobbying by then defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, SpaceX blocked terminals used by Russian forces and Ukraine moved to a whitelist of registered terminals. Russia has since pressed ahead with its own Rassvet constellation, while Ukraine remains wholly dependent on Starlink. Musk has also refused to let Kyiv use the network to plan deep strikes on Russia.
The cap comes days after US President Donald Trump told reporters on October 10 that Ukraine should "get a new leader who can make a deal". Musk, who had fallen out with Trump last year but appears to have patched up the relationship, reposted a video of the remarks on X with the comment: "Zelensky has gone too far."
It also follows two nights of Russian ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv that arrived without advance warning from Western partners, which some in Kyiv have blamed on Washington scaling back intelligence sharing. Zelenskiy confirmed in an interview with NPR published on October 13 that the Trump administration had threatened to suspend intelligence sharing unless Ukraine stopped its strikes on Russian refineries, Hromadske reported.
"They told my generals, not me," Zelenskiy said. Trump insisted on October 13 that the US was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
Relations between Kyiv and the White House are at their worst since Zelenskiy's Oval Office clash with Trump in February 2025. Trump's agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring Russian diesel back onto world markets has opened a rift with Kyiv, which has vowed to keep hitting Russia's refineries.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski asked Musk on X whether he was "playing politics with your products again", warning that European customers "are watching".
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