Ukrainian military operations were disrupted again this week along the front lines because of restrictions on Starshield, the satellite internet system developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and controlled by the U.S. government, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.
Mr. Zelensky told reporters that speed limits of about 100 miles per hour were being enforced for Ukrainian devices connected to the system. It would be the second time in recent weeks that Ukraine’s Starshield connectivity had been throttled. The previous restrictions caused Ukrainian drones to lose their connection to the system if they flew above certain speeds.
Mr. Zelensky said that the latest speed limits took effect on Monday and were being enforced over Russian-occupied territories, not over all of Ukraine. That hurts Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian troops with drones in those territories.
Imposing restrictions on occupied territories is “very dangerous, because it already has political implications,” Mr. Zelensky said. “If you impose restrictions there, you are already partially recognizing the temporarily occupied territories as not ours,” he added.
Mr. Zelensky said separately in his nightly speech that the Starshield limits hurt Ukraine’s ability to use newly developed interceptors to protect its cities from Russia’s jet-powered drones. It is likely, however, that those limits would not affect interceptors in Kyiv, the capital, which is being battered by jet-powered drones but is far from the front lines.
Mr. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment on Friday evening. SpaceX had earlier told Axios that the Ukrainian claim about throttled connectivity was false.
Source: www.nytimes.com
