For several days, Ukrainian troops have been reporting significant disruptions to the Starshield system over Ukraine. They are occurring along the entire front line and in occupied territory.
The speed of the satellite connection has been limited to 161 km/h. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported this on Telegram on the morning of 12 November.
“Ukrainian troops have already checked the circumstances, and these are not random errors but a systemic speed restriction. For us, this is primarily about a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones. Unfortunately, there have already been hits because the interception systems do not reach sufficient speed and fail to intercept in time. Unfortunately, this helps the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes on Ukraine,” he said.
Ukraine is trying to find out the details in the United States.
Starshield is a militarised satellite system operated by SpaceX.
“Starshield is a branch of SpaceX’s broader Starlink network. For Starshield’s needs, 182 satellites have been allocated, working specifically in the interests of this project, which is aimed at providing resilient government and military communications. According to open-source information, the main operator of the Starshield system in the United States is a separate unit within the Space Force structure. However, the development of the satellites and ongoing support in orbit takes place under contracts with SpaceX,” explains Vadym Kushnikov, a commentator for Militarnyi.
Last month, Ukrainian forces already faced a deliberate restriction of connection speed from 400 km/h to 160 km/h, which made it impossible to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones and to conduct operations against the occupiers. There was no official warning: Ukrainian forces discovered the drop in speed and, as a result, the loss of drones only during operations. Ukraine checked whether the restriction applied to its Starlink in EU countries and found that it did not: the connection dropped only on its territory, while abroad it worked.
SpaceX owner Elon Musk accused Ukraine of using the civilian system to kill Russians, but Zelenskyy stressed that the system is not used for attacks on Russian territory.
The White House still has not answered who exactly was responsible for the speed restrictions that led to an intensification of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s civilian facilities. The US President assured that he had not given such an instruction. The Senate plans to investigate what exactly happened.