The Hindu reported, citing an interview with The Associated Press, that Ukraine is negotiating with SpaceX and the Pentagon over a speed cap on Starshield. Starshield is the military version of the Starlink satellite internet service. Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence technology adviser to President Zelenskyy, said the cap began without warning early on October 15. It cuts the data link when a terminal moves faster than 160 kph (100 mph). Many Ukrainian drones fly faster. He said they had to slow down, which made them easier for Russian weapons to hit. He also said outages followed. SpaceX fixed those after Ukraine raised them, but the cap stayed.
Ukraine has no explanation for why the limit was set. Beskrestnov said Kyiv does not know what the decision will be. The Pentagon has not answered AP's questions. Elon Musk said this week that the US government owns and controls Starshield. President Trump told reporters on Friday that he did not order any restriction. He also doubted that Musk did. Beskrestnov said Ukraine is checking two routes. One is a separate Starshield package for aircraft with no speed limit, which costs much more. The other is getting the current cap lifted.
Ukraine's drone operations depend heavily on one service, and a limit set without notice changed how those drones can fly. Beskrestnov said Ukraine is now looking at other networks, including one Amazon is building and OneWeb, run by Europe's Eutelsat.