Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, November 12, that Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink, is again cutting out on anything moving faster than 100 mph (161 km/h). He said his units have recorded the problem for several days along the entire front line and over Russian-occupied territory, and that Russian strikes have already gotten through because Ukraine’s interceptors could not reach the speed they needed in time.
It would be the second time in a month. The same ceiling appeared in mid-October, when DroneXL reported that it slowed the interceptor drones Ukraine flies against Shaheds, and Zelensky said on October 24 that normal speeds were back.
Zelensky posted after briefings from Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi. SpaceX answered Axios the same day in two sentences: “This is false. There has been no change.”
Zelensky Says Ukraine’s Military Checked the Cap Before He Spoke
Zelensky wrote on X and Telegram that Ukrainian military personnel had already examined the disruptions and that “these are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions.” He said the main effect is on intercepting Russian jet-powered drones, and that Kyiv is trying to establish the circumstances with the American side.
A Ukrainian official told Axios the problems had run for three days. A corps-level commander fighting in Donetsk Oblast told the Kyiv Independent the limit was still in place and made Ukraine’s mid-range strike drones easier for Russia to intercept or evade. Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said the links to the jet interceptors and to the helicopters that track Shahed-type drones were both affected. “Our joy was short-lived,” he said.
After the October restoration, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported stable connections above 249 mph (400 km/h), according to the Kyiv Independent. Russia’s jet-powered Geran-4 flies at up to 310 mph (500 km/h), according to the Ukrainian intelligence teardown DroneXL covered in May. An interceptor that loses its link at 100 mph can’t chase it, and Ukraine only filmed its first jet Shahed kill in September.
Speaking later Thursday at the European Political Community summit in Ireland, Zelensky said the jet Shaheds fly in from occupied territory, that aircraft can’t operate near the front line, and that only interceptor drones can work there. He said Kyiv has asked the American side for details and so far knows very little.
SpaceX Denies Any Change and the Pentagon Has Not Explained
SpaceX’s denial to Axios was the only on-record answer from the company or the U.S. government in Thursday’s reporting. SpaceX declined to comment to Reuters, and the Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond. Denys Sienik, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, told Reuters Kyiv had no clarification from either.
Sienik described the limits as active on occupied territory and across the contact line, which he called “the first point for interception of Russian drones.” He told reporters earlier this month that Ukraine’s contract with the U.S. government for Starshield access expires next year and that Kyiv wants talks on a new one to start urgently.
Neither Musk nor the U.S. government took responsibility for October’s Starshield cap, Reuters reported. Its own sources put the order inside the White House. The Wall Street Journal’s sources said Elon Musk ordered the slowdown. President Donald Trump denied ordering it, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in October that the Pentagon had issued no directive. Musk wrote on X on October 24 that Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government, and that SpaceX had closed a “loophole” that let Ukraine use commercial Starlink for offensive drone strikes. Ukrainian officials rejected that account of their Starlink use.
Two days of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine ended in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, and Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. A Ukrainian official told Reuters the disruptions were not mentioned at the Abu Dhabi talks and that it was unclear who had made the decision.
Blumenthal’s SpaceX Briefing Deadline Fell on the Day Zelensky Posted
Senator Richard Blumenthal’s October 22 letter to Musk asked SpaceX officials with direct knowledge of the first restriction to brief the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations no later than November 12, and Forbes reported Thursday that it was unclear whether any briefing had been scheduled.
Written answers were due November 5. Two of the nine questions in the letter would apply equally to a second incident. Blumenthal, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, asked who holds the authority under SpaceX’s Pentagon contracts to activate, restrict, geofence or shut off Starshield, and whether SpaceX can technically degrade the service for U.S. or partner forces without Defense Department authorization.
The Pentagon’s inspector general declined, in a response dated October 27, to investigate the first cap at the request of nine senators and said their concerns were better answered by the Air Force, the Associated Press reported. A spokeswoman said the office may reconsider if new information comes to light.
In the House, the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus said on X Thursday that it was “extremely alarmed” and demanded a full accounting from the Trump administration and SpaceX, along with immediate restoration of full Starshield access. The caucus has 105 members.
DroneXL’s Take
Zelensky’s account and SpaceX’s denial contradict each other, and my read is that the burden is on the American side. Kyiv has named the speed, the area and the number of days, and says its military checked before the president went public. SpaceX has given two sentences, and the Pentagon, which buys the service, has said nothing about this week’s reports. If SpaceX is right that nothing changed on its side and Ukraine’s units are right about what they measured, then the change came from somewhere else. The U.S. government and SpaceX are the ones who can say where.
In October I wrote that a drone force whose air defense rides on a link another government can slow without warning has a single point of failure. Two reported caps in four weeks, the second in the same week as U.S.-brokered peace talks, are a pattern Kyiv has to plan around, whoever turns out to be responsible. The inspector general said new information could reopen the question. A second reported cap is new information.
Sources: Volodymyr Zelensky on X, Forbes, Axios, Kyiv Independent, Reuters via The Moscow Times, NBC News, Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s letter to SpaceX, Associated Press, Congressional Ukraine Caucus on X.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
