Ukraine’s defence ministry says its full access to Starshield has been restored. The announcement came on Saturday, two days after President Donald Trump said Elon Musk had put the military-grade version of Starlink back in place.
Defence Minister Yevheniy Khmara said the ministry’s monitoring systems show a recovery in speeds. He said they now exceed 400 km/h and that the connection is stable. The ministry will keep tracking progress.
It is not clear whether the fix is being felt across the country. One source in the Donetsk region told CNN on Saturday morning that speeds there were still capped at 160 kilometres per hour.
Later in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Starlink and Starshield had resumed at their earlier speeds. He called the services crucial for frontline logistics and for defending Ukraine against jet-propelled Shahed drones.
Trump’s Call to Musk
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump phoned Musk in recent days and asked him to restore full access. Trump had been seeking information after Ukrainian officials reported disruptions. Musk is the owner of Starlink and of Starshield’s parent company, SpaceX.
Trump has declined to discuss the call publicly. He told reporters at the White House that it made no difference who called. “The bottom line,” he said, is that Musk “put it back.”
Who Ordered the Slowdown?
The cause of the restrictions remains unclear. Trump and some top officials had denied ordering the throttling. On Friday, CNN’s Alayna Treene asked Trump who ordered the slowdown. He said he had no idea, and that he would not say if he did.
Musk also denied acting alone. He said last week that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and, ultimately, the president.
Until Friday evening, Ukrainian officials said the limits were still in place. Denys Sienik, Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Washington, said Kyiv was getting “mixed messages.”
Impact on the Front Line
For more than a week, the restrictions disrupted anything moving at high speed. Ukrainian officials say interceptor drones were hit hardest, and operations in many areas were upended.
Sienik said the speed cap was set at 100 miles per hour. At that point, the connection with the drone drops, which makes it hard to stop fast Russian drones. Russia has been launching jet-powered drones that fly faster than 300 miles per hour.
A Ukrainian Armed Forces officer said the limits complicated coordination, with connections dropping for 10 to 15 seconds at a time. The officer said Ukraine lost many more assets than usual, including reconnaissance drones.
Patriot Delays and Continued Attacks
Zelensky also raised the shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors. He said agreed deliveries to protect against Russian ballistic missiles are still delayed. He hopes to meet American negotiators again in the coming week, after talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday.
Russian attacks have continued. The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 176 attack drones on Thursday night. A CNN tally shows at least nine civilians killed and 76 injured in the past day.
Ukraine’s deputy energy minister said strikes hit energy infrastructure in six regions and left more than 500,000 people without power on Friday. The State Emergency Service reported attacks on civilian and residential areas in Sumy.
Russia’s defence ministry said it hit a railcar depot in Poltava and the Danube port of Vylkove. It also said it destroyed 443 Ukrainian drones overnight. Three civilians were injured by falling debris in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, according to the local governor.
