Before the cap the network handled drones flying 400 km/h, Axios reports; the fighter jets now filling in hit about half their targets, Zelensky says.
The tests. Ukrainian testers drove vehicles carrying Starlink and Starshield terminals (SpaceX's consumer and military satellite-internet services) through EU countries and into Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, Oct. 17. Abroad the link held above 180 km/h; inside Ukraine it dropped at 161 km/h (100 mph). He called the limit a "planned operation."
The cost. Ukraine's interceptor drones can't work under the cap, so it is sending fighter jets after Russian Shahed attack drones instead. Zelensky says those jets hit about half their targets. The same day he said Russia hit more than 15 power generation and transmission sites in one large attack, CBS reports.
“Here it shuts off in the second minute after 161 km/h and stops working. We lose both drones and connectivity.”Volodymyr Zelensky (President, Ukraine)
Still open. Who ordered the cap. A Ukrainian official told Axios that SpaceX calls it a technical problem, SpaceX contacts point to the White House, and the White House points to Elon Musk.
Catch up
- Oct. 14 — Ukraine's military Starshield terminals stopped working above about 160 km/h; Musk blamed the U.S. military and Trump, and a senior U.S. official denied it.
- Oct. 15 — Two U.S. officials and a Western official said the order came from the White House; Thom Tillis (Sen-R North Carolina) asked the Pentagon inspector general to investigate.
- Oct. 15 — A Ukrainian official said service briefly returned to full capacity after more than a day.
- Oct. 16 — Trump said neither he nor Musk ordered the caps; nine senators asked the Pentagon watchdog who did.