Ukraine now has a “stable connection” to Starlink, its defense minister said, after its military suffered days of restricted connectivity on the satellite internet network. kyiv relies on Starlink and its military-grade counterpart Starshield for drone piloting and operations inside Ukraine, but last week accused US President Donald Trump of telling its owner, Elon Musk, to put limits on it. This meant the drones would lose connection when traveling at 100 mph (161 km/h) or faster, he said. Trump denied this before saying Musk had “given him back.” Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said speeds of more than 400 km/h were now possible on the network, indicating full capacity had been restored. “This result is above all important for our front, for our soldiers, for drone operation, for logistics and for communications,” he said in a statement on Saturday. The network of 10,000 low-Earth orbit satellites is widely used by the Ukrainian military for military operations, particularly in remote battlefield areas. Ukraine uses both the civil service Starlink and the more secure Starshield, which Musk said was controlled by the US military when he suggested the Pentagon could be behind the recent problems. Russia is not authorized to use Starlink, so when Ukraine sends long-range missiles or drones to Russia to attack oil refineries, the network is down. The debacle over Starlink began last week and emerged during a broader diplomatic dispute between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukrainian attacks on Russia. oil infrastructure. Ahead of next month’s midterm elections, Trump waived some sanctions against Russia and agreed to a deal to import Russian diesel for the U.S. market, a move criticized by Ukraine and its European allies.
