Civilians were killed during Starlink/Starshield outage due to Russian strikes, - Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the shutdown of Starlink and Starshield was one of the reasons for civilian casualties during Russian shelling.
The head of state made this statement during a conversation with the media, according to Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform.
Details
"Of course, civilians were killed during the shutdown of Starlink/Starshield. There were various reasons, and this is one of them. Right now, we’re destroying about 90% of the ‘shaheds.’ When the attacks began, we were shooting down between 50 and 75–78%. But then that figure went back up again," the president emphasized.
At the same time, Zelenskyy noted that he doesn’t know who "told SpaceX to do this."
"Perhaps it was their own internal decision. I don’t know who makes the decisions. If it’s SpaceX, then maybe Elon. But if it’s someone from the government—I don’t know. I don’t have that information. I only know that, technically, SpaceX turns these systems on and off," he added.
Restrictions on Starlink’s operation in Ukraine
- On 14 October, volunteer and former adviser to the Minister of Defence Serhii Sternenko stated that, during the night, SpaceX had restricted the operation of Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military. As a result, he said, "a number of important missions were disrupted". The restrictions were imposed on data transmission depending on the speed of the UAVs using Starlink.
- This information was subsequently confirmed by Serhii Beskrestnov (Flash). According to him, the restrictions may also complicate the use of drones designed to intercept jet-powered ‘shaheds’.
- Units of the 7th Airborne Corps also reported that they began to experience problems with Starlink connectivity in the Huliaipole sector last night. This concerns the Starshield package – the so-called military package, which previously had no data transmission speed restrictions.
- Later, former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that network operations were being restored at speeds of up to 160 km/h.
- Meanwhile, Elon Musk stated that he does not set the limits for Starshield, which Ukraine uses. This system is controlled by the US government, not SpaceX.
- According to Reuters,the order to restrict Starshield for Ukraine came from the White House.
- On 16 October, US President Trump stated that Washington was not involved in slowing down the ‘military package’ of the Starlink (Starshield) satellite communications system for the Ukrainian military.
- On 19 October, Zelenskyy reported that in various sectors of the front line, Ukrainian military equipment fitted with the Starlink system ceases to function at speeds of 130–161 kilometres per hour.
- Hegseth stated that the Pentagon had not issued any orders to restrict Starshield.
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Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had telephoned Musk and asked him to lift the restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine, whilst on Thursday Trump said that "the main thing is that he’s put everything back the way it was" and declined to comment on whether he had telephoned Musk.
- On 22 October, Trump refused to say whether he had telephoned SpaceX owner Elon Musk regarding the speed restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine.
- According to Politico, as of the morning of Friday 23 October, the Ukrainian military were still facing Starlink speed restrictions, despite Trump’s announcement that the services had resumed full operation.
- 24 October
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence stated that StarLink terminals and their military variants, StarShield, from SpaceX were once again operating at speeds exceeding 161 km/h.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also confirmed the resumption of Starlink services for Ukraine.
