The President of Ukraine has said that speed restrictions on Starshield are making it harder to intercept Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this during a speech at the European Political Community summit.
He noted that Kyiv is trying to obtain details from the US side, but for now Ukraine knows very little.
“At the same time, some things are already clear. If someone in America makes decisions that, in effect, interpret Ukrainian territory as though it is not Ukrainian, that shows where things are heading. We must state clearly that we will never, in any way, recognise Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories,” Zelenskyy said.
According to the President, in Ukraine, including in the temporarily occupied areas, Starshield has once again had its speed limited to 161 km/h, or 100 miles per hour.
This directly affects the ability of Ukrainian forces to intercept Russian jet-powered Shahed-type drones. They are launched from these areas, and because of the speed limit Ukrainian interceptors cannot catch up with the unmanned aircraft in time.
Zelenskyy explained that near the front line the Ukrainian side cannot use aviation, so only interceptor drones operate there.
“This means more Russian strikes reach their targets and more of our people die. Russia is killing civilians,” the President stressed.
What preceded this?
- On 11 November, President Zelenskyy reported that for several days Ukrainian troops have once again been recording significant disruptions in the operation of the Starshield system over Ukrainian territory. They are occurring along the entire front line and in the occupied territory.
- Earlier, Ukrainian troops had already encountered a speed restriction on Starlink satellite communications from 400 to 160 km/h. This complicated the interception of Russian jet-powered drones and the conduct of operations at the front. At the time, the restriction was discovered without warning, and checks showed it applied only on Ukrainian territory, while in EU countries the connection worked without such obstacles.
- SpaceX owner Elon Musk had said that the Ukrainian military were using the civilian network to kill Russians, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied it was being used for attacks on Russian territory.
- The White House did not say who was responsible for the previous restrictions, and US President Donald Trump said he had not given such an instruction. The US Senate plans to investigate the incident.