Ukraine confirms Starlink speeds back to normal after outage

Ukraine's Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara announced on Saturday that the country's satellite internet access has returned to full capacity. The restoration follows several days of operational limits that disrupted military communications and drone operations.

Khmara confirmed that network speeds have risen above 400km/h, a threshold that indicates the system is functioning at full capability. He described the recovery as vital for frontline troops, drone operations, and logistics. The ministry relies on the service to maintain command and control across the battlefield.

For the past week, Ukrainian forces faced connectivity issues when drones exceeded a speed of 161km/h. Officials in Kyiv attributed the restrictions to instructions given by US President Donald Trump to Elon Musk, the owner of Starlink. Trump initially denied issuing such orders but later stated that Musk had reversed the limits.

The military utilizes both the civilian Starlink and the more secure Starshield systems. Musk has indicated that the US military controls Starshield and suggested that the Pentagon may have been involved in the recent disruptions. Ukraine depends on these 10,000 low Earth orbit satellites, particularly in remote areas where other communication infrastructure is scarce.

The technical dispute coincided with a diplomatic disagreement between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The tension centered on Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil infrastructure. With US midterm elections approaching next month, Trump has eased some sanctions on Russia and agreed to import Russian diesel. European allies and Ukraine have criticized the move.

Trump argued that the attacks on refineries drove up global fuel prices, while Kyiv maintained that cutting Moscow's revenue was essential to ending the war. Zelensky also claimed the US threatened to stop sharing intelligence if the strikes continued, a claim Trump rejected. Russia does not have authorization to use Starlink, meaning the network does not support Ukrainian assets deep inside Russian territory.

Combat continued on the ground during the connectivity issues. The Russian defence ministry reported on Saturday that air defences downed 616 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones. These drones struck several regions, including the Russian-annexed territory of Crimea. Governor Sergey Aksyonov said power and water restrictions were imposed in Crimea after the strikes caused outages.

Ukrainian authorities reported hitting a missile component manufacturer, a chemical plant, and an aircraft at a military airfield within Russia in the past day. They also stated that Russia conducted 88 air strikes on Friday, deploying 309 glide bombs and 10,270 kamikaze drones.