Ukraine Says Starlink Is Back to Full Power

Ukraine says it looks like the speed limit on its military internet service has been rescinded. According to the Wall Street Journal, messaging from Ukraine Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara on Saturday morning indicated that service was back to normal after ten days of throttling. In recent months, Ukraine has been able to generate hopeful stories about its war effort thanks in part to its use of Starlink’s Starshield, the military-grade, satellite internet provider run by SpaceX. In September, for instance, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed to be regularly intercepting the majority of Russian Shahed jet drone attacks, and the vast majority of conventional Shahed attacks. Starshield, to be clear, is for Ukraine’s domestic efforts, and apparently does not play much of a role if any in Ukraine’s drone incursions into Russia, where it attacks oil and internet infrastructure. Oil refinery attacks had greatly upset President Trump, who said on October 10 that Zelenskyy had “better damn well stop.” Musk posted on October 10 that Zelenskyy had “gone too far.” But, crucially, the WSJ describes Starshield as mainly being used “to intercept Russian Shahed-type drones, bomb the Russian army’s logistics and stall Russia’s invasion force.” Nonetheless, when the slowdown started on October 14, Ukrainian drones reportedly started to lose connectivity at the speeds necessary to chase certain Russian drones. On October 16, Zelenskyy posted on X that the slowdown was preventing attacks from being intercepted. “We couldn’t use a tool that helps protect people. That’s very painful and frustrating.” We don’t use Starlink for our responses inside Russia. We use Starlink to intercept jet-powered “shaheds” that attack our civilians and kill families. Starlink wasn’t turned off – its speed was reduced. And when the speed was reduced, we were unable to intercept a certain number… — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 16, 2026 Initially, Elon Musk claimed that President Trump was the party responsible for the slowdown, posting, “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” Trump himself claimed that neither he nor Musk bore responsibility. But subsequent anonymously-sourced reporting indicated that the buck stopped with Musk, who had, the WSJ claimed on October 20, given the order to initiate the speed limit. On Wednesday, Trump reportedly called Musk to ask that the speed limit be lifted. There were still reports that Starsheld hadn’t been restored to full power on Friday, and in response to questions about the slowdown from reporters, Trump said “I’ve heard it was fixed, but if it’s not, I’ll speak to him,” with “him” presumably meaning Musk. The WSJ says Ukraine is still testing high speed drones as of Friday, and that there still hasn’t been an explanation from the U.S. for the slowdown. Gizmodo reached out to SpaceX for comment. We will update if we hear back.