Ukraine confirms Starlink restored after week of speed restrictions

Starlink and its military variant Starshield returned to full operating speeds on Saturday after more than a week of restrictions that hampered Ukrainian military operations, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.

Zelensky said that "Starlink and Starshield have resumed operations at their pre-restriction speeds," adding that the speeds were now at the level Ukraine needed. Ukraine's Defence Ministry confirmed the connection was stable at over 400 megabits per second.

The restrictions, which had capped operations at 160 Mbps, forced the cancellation of some missions and impaired the military's ability to intercept Russian attack drones. Starshield-enabled medium-range attack drones have given Ukraine an advantage in several battlefield areas this year, according to Ukrainian officials.

The throttling coincided with disruptions to allied warnings about incoming Russian missile attacks, though Kyiv subsequently said US intelligence continued to flow. Neither Elon Musk nor the US government acknowledged responsibility; both said publicly that any such decision could only have been taken by the other. Reuters reported the order to throttle Starshield came from inside the White House.

On Friday, Trump said that if problems persisted he would "get it straightened out" — contradicting his earlier statement that services had been fully restored.