Ukraine says Starshield restrictions still in place despite Trump's claim Musk restored them

President Donald Trump’s claim that Elon Musk has restored Ukraine’s full access to Starshield is being flatly contradicted by Kyiv. “The speed has not been restored,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday — a day after Trump told reporters: “The bottom line, he put it back.”

Ukrainian drone units and government officials say Starshield connections keep failing when drones fly faster than 161 kilometres an hour (about 100mph), the Wall Street Journal reported. “At this time, we have not observed any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence-technology adviser to Zelensky, said Friday on Telegram, adding that isolated faster cases were likely SpaceX algorithm quirks. “Overall, there’s no change anywhere,” a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent.

Some units managed 200km/h test flights on Thursday — mostly near the Black Sea — but wider retesting overnight failed, and units are still told to keep speeds at or below 160km/h. A pilot from Ukraine’s top drone unit Magyar’s Birds told Politico: “We accelerate above 180km/h, fly for a couple of minutes, the connection drops. It falls to 140–150km/h and then is re-established — but the situation is better.”

“I’ve heard it was fixed but if it’s not I’ll speak to him,” Trump said Friday, referring to Musk. The restrictions, imposed on 14 October, have hampered interceptor drones used against Russia’s jet-powered Shahed/Geran drones. The Telegraph has reported Musk proposed the speed cap to Trump, who “agreed” — an account neither side has confirmed — while Musk says “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists the administration cannot direct a private company.

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