Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back at full speed, and Musk says SpaceX throttled the civilian service over drone strikes

Ukraine's satellite links are running at full speed again. Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said on Saturday that the ministry's monitoring systems record Starlink and Starshield speeds above 400 kilometres per hour, with a stable connection. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the restoration and said it began overnight. "The speeds are now where they need to be," he wrote. He said the services matter for front line logistics and for defending Ukraine against Russia's jet powered Shahed drones.

For more than a week, the military grade Starshield service had been capped at about 160 kilometres per hour. Commanders reported lost drones and cancelled missions, and interceptor drones could not run fast enough to catch the Shaheds.

Elon Musk then explained his side of it on X. He acknowledged that SpaceX throttled the civilian Starlink service. "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote. "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week." He said the United States government, not SpaceX, controls Starshield and decides what happens with it.

President Trump had asked Musk in a phone call in recent days to restore Ukraine's full access, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke to CNN. Trump declined to confirm the call. "Whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn't make any difference, I guess," he told reporters. "The bottom line, he put it back."

The restoration may not have reached every unit at once. A source in the Donetsk region told CNN on Saturday morning that speeds there were still limited to 160 kilometres per hour. A Ukrainian drone adviser, Serhii Beskrestnov, answered Musk on Telegram and said Ukraine physically cannot use commercial Starlink for long and middle range drone strikes.