After weeklong disruption, Ukraine says Starlink satellite access is fully back to normal

Service speeds restored

Ukrainian officials said monitoring systems had detected speed restrictions. On Saturday, they reported that Starlink and Starshield speeds were fully back after more than a week of disruptions and slowdowns, which they said had hindered military defense.

Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara said the restored service mattered to frontline troops, drone operations, logistics and communications. He credited direct dialogue and Zelenskyy’s position at the highest level for helping deliver the result.

Talks and competing accounts

Zelenskyy had appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials for help restoring the service, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. After talks with U.S. officials, Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the early warning system had resumed, while speeds were still taking time to return to previous levels.

The Trump administration denied ordering a slowdown in Starlink- and Starshield-supported networks and pointed to SpaceX for the change. Musk said Ukraine had violated Starlink’s terms of service. He also said Starshield, the military-grade version, is controlled by the U.S. government.

Service rules and oversight

Musk described Starlink as a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX, limited to civilian or defensive activities and not intended for offensive military action. He said decisions about Starshield were up to the U.S. government.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators requested last week that the Pentagon’s independent inspector general open an official probe into the disruptions. Trump said he had heard the issue was fixed and would speak to Musk if it was not.

Disruptions amid attacks

Russia launched several attacks against Ukraine over the last two weeks, according to the report. Ukrainian officials said a strike on an apartment building in Zaporizhzhia killed 20 people, including three children.