Over the past week, Ukraine has received a stark reminder of its increasing reliance on uninterrupted access to Elon Musk’s Starlink and Starshield networks in its drone war against Russia, now in its fifth year. Ukraine has a fraction of Russia’s resources, but its aggressive development of drone warfare on defensive and offensive fronts has helped it withstand an attack from its much larger adversary, which invaded Ukraine in early 2022. That was true until last week, when Ukraine reported a Starshield network choke that was causing its drones to stop in mid-flight and fall from the sky. SpaceX’s two networks operate on a constellation of thousands of low-Earth satellites: Starlink is the commercial version, while Starshield is a military product licensed to the US government and its partners, including Ukraine. kyiv’s dependence on drones has made Starlink and Starshield almost indispensable to its arsenal. When Ukraine experienced a disruption to those networks, it lost the shield of interceptors and drones that offered some protection against Russian drone and missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes Musk strangled Starshield at the request of US officials, although the world’s richest man has denied any role and said it is the US government that controls the military-grade network. President Trump has also denied being responsible for the network slowdown. However, CBS News reported Tuesday that Musk was behind the outage, which occurred after he spoke with administration officials several times seeking clarity about the president’s thinking on the matter, according to sources familiar with the situation. There has also been conflicting information about whether full access to the networks has been restored. As of Wednesday afternoon, Starlink remained limited, Zelenskyy’s office confirmed. Here’s what is known about Starshield and Starlink, and their role in the Ukraine war. What happened in Ukraine? On October 13, the Ukrainian military began experiencing sudden difficulties with Starshield equipment, making it more difficult to carry out fast-moving drone missions, officials and soldiers told CBS News. Ukrainian soldiers said they noticed that “speed limits” had been imposed on the use of SpaceX’s Starshield Internet satellite dishes, the military-grade Starlink antennas that the Ukrainians attach to their drones so that remote pilots can maintain their connection to the drones as they fly toward Russian targets. Access was restricted by turning off the antennas of Ukrainian drones flying above a certain speed, causing them to fall from the sky. Ukrainian Defense Ministry sources said SpaceX had unilaterally imposed the Starshield restrictions without informing them beforehand. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that speed limits had prevented Ukraine from using Starshield to shoot down Russian Shahed attack drones. What are Starshield and Starlink? Starshield, the military-grade satellite network, runs on the same satellite constellation as its civilian sister, Starlink, but has fewer technical limitations and more advanced security features. Both are operated by Musk’s company, SpaceX. The U.S. government pays SpaceX to license Starshield and control who can access the technology. Its use has been limited to Ukraine and the occupied territories. Not available in Russia. There is no functional alternative to Starlink, as no direct competitor comes close to Starlink’s coverage of 11,150 satellites. Amazon Leo aims to compete, but currently has fewer than 400 satellites in low Earth orbit and has been hampered by the explosion of a Blue Origin rocket launch pad in May. Regular Starlink terminals have a speed limit of 70 km/h (43.5 mph), which is the speed at which the Internet can be used in a moving vehicle. At rates that exceed the limit, the Internet is degraded and can no longer be used. Starshield has no artificial speed limit and is known to operate at speeds of at least 160 km/h (99.4 mph). Starshield-equipped attack drones fly at 160 km/h or more, and are the backbone of Ukrainian medium-range attacks. During last week’s ramp-up, Ukrainian units reported link drops at speeds as low as 90 km/h (55.9 mph), rendering those drones inoperable. The degradation of Starshield is estimated to have cost Ukraine tens of millions of dollars in losses, according to an analysis by Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone pilot and analyst with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On October 15, some Ukrainian officials said Starshield restrictions had been lifted. But Zelenskyy told NBC News on Sunday that the top speed was still 161 km/h. Zelenskyy told Fox News on Wednesday that the service was “still limited,” but added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him he would “work with his team on this to unblock it.” Members of a Ukrainian National Police battalion set up a Starlink satellite communications terminal at a combat position in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on October 16, 2026. Photo by Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via AP Does Ukraine use Starshield or Starlink? Use both. Starlink has been providing internet service to Ukrainian civilians and military forces since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, according to Reuters. Initially funded by private donors and a US foreign aid contract, SpaceX won a Pentagon contract to pay for Starlink for Ukraine in 2023, along with a contract for 500 Starshield terminals. In August 2024, SpaceX signed another contract with the Department of Defense to expand the use of Starshield to 3,000 terminals for the front lines, Bloomberg reported. Beyond communicating with drones and guiding them over long distances, Starshield also serves another function: connecting all the sensors and weapons systems on the battlefield. Service interruptions have an impact comparable to that of an office having to operate without being able to connect to Wi-Fi. The Ukrainian military uses Starlink for general battlefield communications, and Ukrainian civilians also depend on it for their communication needs. On the Russian side, the Kremlin had also been using Starlink until February, when SpaceX cut off its access. As a result, Ukraine gained more than 150 square miles of territory. Musk and limiting Ukraine’s access to StarshieldCBS News reported Tuesday that a decision by Musk led to restrictions on Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s satellite communications network, although it is unclear how Musk’s order to restrict the service was carried out. Musk had spoken with administration officials several times, seeking clarity on the president’s thinking on the matter, the sources said. In the past, he has expressed distaste for the perception that his company could be seen as profiting from the Ukraine war. The temporary restrictions came as a surprise to some Trump administration officials, who said neither Trump nor the Pentagon had specifically ordered any limits aimed at deliberately disrupting drone operations and battlefield communications. The president said Monday that he was seeking information about who ordered the slowdown. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied Tuesday that the Pentagon had tampered with the service, saying, “We haven’t given any directives or anything like that.” Can Elon Musk stop the use of Starlink and Starshield? Musk has not admitted to imposing restrictions on the use of Starshield in Ukraine. “Any speed limits or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately the president,” the world’s richest person wrote on Rubio, however, appeared to blame the network’s limitations. “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that Starlink, Starshield and Mr. Musk make,” Rubio told reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday. Within a few minutes, however, he seemed to admit that Starshield was different: “We don’t control what a private company does, how they decide their product can be used. Now, if they have a contract with the United States military, like Starshield, that’s a different matter, because it’s something we’re purchasing and sharing intelligence. Around the same time as the Starlink and Starshield outages, Ukraine also received no warnings from US intelligence about major Russian attacks. Ukraine relies on a combination of American sensors, aircraft, surveillance and human intelligence to map Russian positions and launch sites. The early warning system, distinct from SpaceX products, notifies Ukraine when Russia launches a ballistic missile in its direction. It failed in at least two cases, on October 13 and 18. On October 13, Zelenskyy said Ukraine “did not receive any advance warning” when Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles. That overnight attack targeted power and critical infrastructure in kyiv and Kharkiv, killing six people and leaving about 600,000 without power. Ukrainian sources said US officials said the warning system had failed due to “bad weather”. Ukrainian officials expressed doubt about that explanation and accused the United States of “gaming” the system. By 3 a.m., that system appeared to have been restored. Then on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been hit by another wave of Russian missile and drone attacks, “and again, there was no warning from partners.” A senior Pentagon official told CBS News on Monday that there had been “no change in War Department policy regarding intelligence sharing or any capabilities that we are allowing the Europeans to provide to Ukraine.” us,” Zelenskyy said on Fox News. Mounting pressure to end the war Deliveries of key Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine have also slowed, Ukraine said. Rubio on Tuesday called the interceptors “the most in-demand product right now in the defense field” and said that “when a country doesn’t get interceptors from the United States, it’s not because we deny it. We have our own needs, too.” “Nothing is deliberately being denied to Ukraine,” he said. “It’s simply a balance between our obligations.” Trump has grown impatient with the war that has raged for more than four years. He has tried to portray the ongoing war in Ukraine as the reason for high energy prices and has expressed frustration with Zelenskyy more frequently in recent weeks, accusing him of not doing enough to end it. Earlier this month he waived restrictions on the purchase of Russian diesel in an effort to ease pressure on the price of the raw material, a move that Zelenskyy said could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin. And Trump also waived sanctions on Russia last week. Trump said earlier this month that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure, announcing an “energy ceasefire.” Russian refineries because Russia was still attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The Russian government never confirmed that it had agreed to a ceasefire. Trump told reporters Tuesday that Russia is still “moving forward” and is more capable of withstanding casualties than Ukraine, arguing that “it’s time” for Zelenskyy to reach a deal. Ramy Inocencio, Olivia Gazis, Jennifer Jacobs and James LaPorta contributed to this report.
