space xStarlink internet systems continue to be suppressed in Ukraine as risks to the war-torn country increase, Ukrainian officials and national security experts said.
“Every day matters for Ukraine, because every Ukrainian life matters,” Denis Shinik, Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to the United States, wrote in a post on X on Friday.
“Our people are waiting for good news, hoping that restrictions will be lifted and that our nation’s defenders will have the capabilities they need to protect lives,” Szynik said. “Unfortunately, as of today, nothing has changed. We continue to wait.”
Since October 14, Ukrainian authorities have accused SpaceX of undermining their country’s defense capabilities by imposing speed limits on its military-grade Starlink product, StarShield. Officials say drones flying faster than 160 miles per hour can lose connection and some missions will be disrupted.
Despite President Donald Trump’s recent comments suggesting service had been restored, Ukraine’s StarShield terminal continued to experience problems on Friday, said Dmitri Alperovich, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a Washington, D.C., think tank focused on energy, defense technology and global trade.
“They’re losing their drones,” said Alperovitch, co-founder and former chief technology officer of a cybersecurity company. cloud strikehe told CNBC. “The ability to conduct hollow air strikes to attack Russian logistics is currently limited.”
Soldiers of the Special Mission Rifle Battalion of the Ukrainian National Police in Zaporizhzhya region remove a camouflage case from a Starlink satellite communication terminal installed at a combat base in Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 16, 2026.
Dmytro Smolyenko | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post on X on Friday that restrictions on Starlink and StarShield “still exist,” adding that “the speed has not recovered.” He said the country was awaiting the delivery of anti-missile missiles by the United States that had been “already agreed upon.”
“Starlink and StarShield policies and speed limits make things even more difficult,” Zelenskiy wrote. “But our front lines are still holding and I’m proud of how strong our people are.”
President Zelensky’s defense technical advisor Serhii Beskhrestnov also acknowledged the restrictions in place by posting on his Telegram channel.
“Although there are isolated cases in which Starlink operates slightly beyond the set limits, this is likely the result of SpaceX’s algorithms or specific terms of use, rather than actual lifting of limits,” Beskrestnov said in a post translated by Google.
Representatives for Elon Musk and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It remains unclear who is ultimately responsible for the decision to restrict services to Ukraine.
Democratic lawmakers have since called for an investigation into Musk and StarShield’s throttling. A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday, urging him to “act quickly to expand the StarShield agreement and ensure uninterrupted satellite communications support to Ukraine.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump spoke by phone with Musk about lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s StarShield terminals. “I don’t want to comment one way or the other” on whether he called Musk, Trump said Thursday, adding, “The bottom line is, he handed the call back.”
But on Friday, Trump insisted he had not spoken to Musk and reiterated that StarShield service had been restored.
“I’ve heard that the problem has been fixed,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House. “But if not, I’ll talk to him.”
Amid the StarShield turmoil, Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials floated the possibility of employing additional satellite internet communications systems. Experts previously told CNBC that securing an alternative to Starlink could be difficult for Ukraine and other countries because other options are not yet comparable to the service.
President Zelenskiy wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that he had met with Norwegian officials and the Norwegian defense company Kongsberg to “start developing air defense systems and new satellite communication capabilities for our soldiers.”
On Thursday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense signed a letter of intent with Nokia and Finnish space intelligence company ICEYE to “explore cooperation in the space field” and “support Ukraine’s defense capabilities, in particular in the construction of sovereign satellite communications,” the companies said in a release.
“Modern warfare proves that reliable communications is a matter of national security,” President Zelenskiy said in a statement. “We all have to rely on our ability to control.”
–CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Lora Kolodny contributed reporting to this story.
