Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, November 12, that speed restrictions on Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service, have returned along the entire front line. He said the caps are weakening Ukraine’s ability to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones. The statement came as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
“Unfortunately, our units have been recording significant disruptions to Starshield’s operations over the territory of Ukraine for several days now – along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, as quoted by the Australian Associated Press.
What Kyiv says is happening
According to Euronews and NBC News, Zelenskyy said the limit is 161 kilometers per hour, or 100 miles per hour. The cap does not slow the internet connection itself. It cuts a terminal’s link once the platform carrying it moves faster than the threshold. That matters most for interceptor drones, which have to fly fast to catch Russian jet-powered attack drones.
“These are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions,” Zelenskyy said, according to NBC News. He added: “Unfortunately, there have already been strikes that got through because our interception systems cannot reach sufficient speeds and are unable to intercept in time.” Euronews reported that he made the statement after briefings from Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi.
Kyiv has not said who it believes imposed the new limits. “We are trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side,” Zelenskyy wrote.
What is not confirmed: The claim that strikes got through because of the cap is Ukraine’s own assessment. RSN found no independent verification of it. As of publication, RSN found no public statement from SpaceX, the Pentagon or the White House about the new restrictions. NBC News reported that a request for comment had not been answered when it published.
The same cap, three weeks ago
This is the second round. The same 160-kilometer-per-hour (100 mph) limit first appeared overnight on October 13 to 14, Euronews reported, and lasted more than a week. On October 24, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said connections were stable again at more than 400 kilometers per hour (about 248 mph), according to the Kyiv Independent. Zelenskyy wrote at the time: “The speeds are now where they need to be.”
Who ordered the October cap has never been settled, and the public accounts contradict each other.
- Reuters reported on October 15 that the order “came from inside the White House,” citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. The officials did not say who in the White House made the decision. A senior US official told Reuters: “No such request was ever made by the president.”
- President Trump told reporters he did not order the restriction. “I don’t know if it was anybody, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
- Elon Musk first wrote that Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, so any limits are set by the military or the president. On October 24, after service was restored, he wrote that SpaceX had closed a “loophole,” saying Ukraine’s “military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people,” the AP and the Kyiv Independent reported. He maintained that the government controls Starshield.
- Ukrainian officials rejected Musk’s account. Former Defense Ministry adviser Serhii Sternenko said terminals working on the move had to be on a special list tied to military Starshield. Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said Starlink terminals in Ukraine are already capped at 70 to 90 kilometers per hour, according to the Kyiv Independent.
- The AP reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied any administration involvement.
Those accounts cannot all be fully true. The one firm fact is that the same speed threshold has now appeared twice in a month.
The diplomatic backdrop
The new disruption comes in a week of intense diplomacy. US-led talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, the first direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations mediated by the US in nine months, produced agreement on a large prisoner-of-war exchange but no breakthrough in wider negotiations, Reuters reported. The US side said differences remained on major issues, including territory. Witkoff and Kushner then went to Moscow and were due to fly to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy.
In October, Reuters reported that the first cap came as Trump was pressing Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian refineries, which he blamed for soaring energy prices before the midterm elections. Reuters noted that experts attribute the price surge mainly to the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Speculation, flagged as such: The timing invites the reading that connectivity is being used as leverage during negotiations. RSN has seen no evidence that establishes this for the November restrictions. No official has said who imposed them or why.
A single point of failure
Ukraine’s access agreement for Starshield runs out in mid-2027, Euronews reported. On October 22, the Defense Ministry signed a letter of intent with the Finnish companies ICEYE and Nokia to explore a sovereign military satellite communications system. A letter of intent is an early step, not a replacement. For now, a front-line air defense network depends on a switch in another country, and Kyiv says it is still trying to establish who is flipping it.
Sources
- Euronews, “Zelenskyy: Starlink again facing restrictions in Ukraine, hampering Russian drone interceptions,” November 12, 2026: euronews.com
- NBC News, “Ukraine says it’s facing new restrictions to the Starshield network, as Trump envoys meet with Putin,” November 12, 2026: nbcnews.com
- Australian Associated Press via The Examiner, “Ukraine says crucial satellite service again throttled,” November 12, 2026: examiner.com.au
- Reuters, “US envoys go to Kremlin for talks with Putin on Ukraine,” November 12, 2026, read in verbatim wire syndication: internazionale.it
- Reuters, “Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say,” October 15-16, 2026, read in syndication: staradvertiser.com
- Associated Press, “Presidential adviser says Ukraine is in talks to lift speed limit on military satellite network,” October 16, 2026: clickondetroit.com
- Associated Press, “Ukraine says Starlink speed limits lifted after a slowdown that hobbled its drones,” October 24, 2026: clickondetroit.com
- Kyiv Independent, “Starshield operations restored to normal speed, Zelensky confirms as Elon Musk claims Ukraine violated Starlink terms,” October 24, 2026: kyivindependent.com
Featured image: A Starlink flat panel terminal on a vehicle roof, by Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. The photo shows a civilian terminal, not Starshield equipment in Ukraine.
How this article was made: Right Side News researched and drafted this article with the help of AI tools. Sources are linked so readers can check them. Spot an error? Tell us in the comments and we will correct it.
