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Disruptions to the internet service that the Starshield satellite system provides to Ukraine's armed forces have moved to the center of the relationship between Washington and Kyiv, as the two countries deal with the fallout of the war with Russia.

Ukrainian officials say the service has not been cut off entirely but that speed restrictions limit some military and civilian uses. U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskiy and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk have each pointed in different directions over who is responsible.

Conflicting accounts of who ordered the limits

Musk, who owns the Starlink satellite system, is claimed to have ordered the internet service supplied to the Ukrainian military to be slowed. Ukrainian officials say Starlink has not been fully shut down in Ukraine but that speed limits have restricted certain military and humanitarian uses. Zelenskiy has stressed that the operating speed of the "military package" internet service used by the army has not been restored to its former level.

Trump said the problems with the internet service provided to Ukraine's military had been resolved, and that if they had not been, the U.S. president would speak with Musk. Trump defended Musk, saying he would "never do anything wrong" in providing internet to Ukraine, and said he did not know who had ordered the Starlink restrictions on the country. Musk, for his part, argues that the Starshield system is under the control of the Washington government and that any restriction on speed or use is decided by the U.S. president.

Musk often targets Zelenskiy in public remarks. In a post yesterday, Musk wrote: "While the elites make huge fortunes from the hundreds of billions of dollars transferred to Ukraine, the children of the people are forcibly conscripted to die on the fronts." Western officials, meanwhile, have stressed the importance of Ukraine having "full access" to the Starlink system. Continued limits on the system Ukraine uses could cause problems for the Kyiv administration in many areas.

Why Starlink and Starshield matter to Ukraine

According to open-source information, Starlink carries internet traffic through thousands of satellites moving in low Earth orbit, about 550 kilometers above the planet. Its advantage is that it delivers high-speed connectivity without fiber-optic cables or base stations, and its lower orbit compared with traditional fixed-orbit communications satellites reduces latency.

Starshield, the satellite network developed for military use, has more advanced security features than Starlink and differs from the commercial service through communications capabilities suited to military operations. Ukraine has relied heavily on Starlink since the start of the war and on Starshield since 2024, allowing military personnel to keep operating even when infrastructure is destroyed.

The armed forces use the systems for communications between frontline units and headquarters, drone operations, remote video transmission, reconnaissance, surveillance and defense. Ukrainian drones can maintain links with their operators over long distances and reduce the effect of some Russian electronic jamming methods. Some Ukrainian strike drones equipped with Starshield hardware are reported to fly at 160 kilometers per hour or faster and form the core of Kyiv's medium-range strikes on Russia. Ukraine also relies on the system to protect against attacks by fast Russian drones, and continued speed limits would make it harder to counter some of them.

Scale of the network and earlier restrictions

Estimates published in the Ukrainian press in February 2025 put the number of Starlink terminals in the country at around 160,000, with roughly 100,000 of them assessed to be used by the military. That same month, Starlink terminals said to have been used by Russia without authorization were disabled, which was claimed to have damaged the Russian military's strike capacity.

Key takeaways

• Ukrainian officials say Starlink is still operating in the country, but speed limits restrict some military and humanitarian uses
• Zelenskiy says the speed of the military internet package has not been restored, while Trump says he was told the problems were fixed
• Musk says Starshield is under U.S. government control and that restrictions are decided by the U.S. president
• Ukraine is estimated to have around 160,000 Starlink terminals, about 100,000 of them used by the army