President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received detailed reports on the consequences of hostile strikes in Sumy Region and on recovery work in Shostka and Konotop. There were also reports on the situation in Kyiv Region.
The pace of recovery work is “too slow”, and there was misinformation from the ground in several cities, the head of state wrote in a Telegram post following the meeting. He said the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry for Communities must prepare additional tools for co-operation with cities and communities to accelerate the recovery.
“Separately, together with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, we discussed the restoration in Kyiv of the buildings of the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, which were damaged by a Russian ‘Shahed’ drone. The Minister of Energy reported on the protection of transformers and other equipment in the power system,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
At the meeting, Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi reported on communications with the United States regarding a new speed restriction on Starshield satellite communications.
“Unfortunately, along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the speed restriction for our forces remains at 161 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour), which makes it impossible, among other things, to use interceptors against jet-powered ‘Shahed’ drones. There are still no clear explanations. I instructed Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defence of Ukraine to engage more actively with the State Department, the Pentagon and SpaceX to obtain clarifications and rectify the situation,” he said.
The President instructed the Commander of the Air Force, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agrarian Policy to ensure the provision of air defence assets and to update the work of mobile fire groups to protect designated agricultural industry facilities.
- Ukrainian troops noticed the new speed restriction a few days ago, in parallel with trilateral talks involving the United States and Russia. The last time, the US reduced the speed of satellite internet use without warning in October. This led to the loss of the ability to shoot down jet-powered Shahed drones and to conduct operations in occupied territory.