E-Paper
Starshield, the SpaceX satellite service Ukraine’s drones rely on, and who controls it
Ukraine uses the satellite network to guide drones and coordinate defences. A disruption or slowdown has left Kyiv asking who holds the switch.
Prefer HTon Google
Ukraine’s interceptors, which shoot down Russian attack drones over Ukraine, and the drones it uses for strikes against Moscow depend on a satellite link supplied by SpaceX, the company run by billionaire Elon Musk. This week, the service was disrupted, or was slower, for a single day, which – according to Ukrainian commanders – led to a loss of drones and missions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said civilians died because interceptors could no longer bring down Russian drones as effectively.
Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the US government controls the service. Reuters reported that the order came from inside the White House, but a senior US official said President Donald Trump never issued any such direction.
The episode, which came as already shaky ties between Trump and Zelensky frayed some more, exposed just how much of Ukraine’s war relies on a system that Kyiv neither owns nor controls, and how unclear the chain of command over that system is.
Starlink, the base network
Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite internet service. It uses more than 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit to deliver broadband to terminals on the ground, and has 12 million subscribers, according to Bloomberg. It is SpaceX’s most profitable business.
The satellites orbit a few hundred kilometres above Earth, against about 36,000km for traditional communications satellites, so signals travel fast enough to carry live video with little delay.
The service works in areas where conventional internet infrastructure is unavailable or damaged. AP reported that Starlink became a crucial communications tool after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, helping Ukraine’s authorities, emergency services and military units stay connected despite Russian attacks on the country’s communications infrastructure.
Starshield, the military tier
Starshield is SpaceX’s satellite programme for governments and the military, which the company unveiled in December 2022. AP said it was built on Starlink technology but designed for national-security missions, with secure communications, Earth observation, satellites carrying specialised sensors and additional encryption. It is tailored to government requirements and can include dedicated satellites and special equipment.
Olena Tregub, founder and secretary-general of Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission, told AP that Starshield “is the version where you have much higher speeds, you have better connectivity and it’s not available for civilians; it’s available only for the military.”
Part of this week’s confusion comes from the name covering more than one thing. Bloomberg reported that there was a difference between a military-grade communications service that SpaceX sells to governments, which runs over the company’s own Starlink satellites, and a separate Starshield network of satellites that the US government owns and operates.
Reuters said that the Pentagon, Starshield’s biggest customer, has spent billions of dollars on Starlink and Starshield services, and bought dedicated Starshield satellites, including communications spacecraft for missile-warning missions and a spy constellation for the National Reconnaissance Office, the US agency that operates the country’s spy satellites.
It is unclear whether the government-owned network would be providing service to Ukraine.
According to AFP, Ukraine also uses the civilian Starlink service, though not for offensive operations.
Starlink and Starshield are not interchangeable even though they share technology. A restriction on particular terminals or military services does not mean the whole Starlink network has been switched off, and civilian terminals working normally is no guarantee that military connectivity will hold.
Also read: 'We're done': Ukraine's Zelensky says won't follow Trump's demand of no strike on Russian refineries
What Ukraine uses it for
Since 2022, Ukraine has used tens of thousands of Starlink terminals for frontline communications and operations, including piloting drones and directing artillery fire. Some were donated by SpaceX, and Poland, the US and Germany have continued to pay for Ukraine’s access.
Ukraine’s armed forces rely on Starshield to detect incoming Russian attacks, coordinate their response on the front line, carry out mid-range strikes on Russian-occupied territory and fly interceptor drones.
Ukrainian drones rely on the military-grade receivers for onboard guidance over the country’s territory, and that interceptor drones are used to shoot down Russian Shahed drones.
Drone operators need a continuous connection to receive video while the aircraft is in flight. Ukraine also relies on Delta, a system that helps manage and share battlefield data, and moving large volumes of information requires fast, reliable connections, Tregub told AP. “It’s not just about being able to connect. We need to make sure that this speed is there, that it’s not reduced,” she said, adding that standard civilian Starlink access alone would not meet the military’s needs.
Russia’s drone attacks have also grown in size. Zelensky said on X that Russia launched more than 850 drones at Ukraine between midnight and Thursday morning. Ukraine’s air force said its defences stopped 536 Russian drones in a large-scale overnight attack, but impacts were recorded at 31 locations.
What was restricted?
Ukrainian officials said military-grade Starlink receivers stopped working when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with drones that rely on them for guidance. They said the restrictions affected terminals transmitting data at high speeds.
“The Starshield shutdown was short, lasted only one day, but several drones and other systems were affected. Some missions failed, and we lost drones because communications were cut off,” Yevhen Karas, commander of the 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment, known as Raid, told AP. His unit specialises in tactical and deep-strike drone operations.
A person in Ukraine’s defence ministry told Reuters on Thursday that the receivers were working in motion again, but only up to 160kph (100mph). Ukrainian officials say that is too slow for mid-range attack missions and for the interceptor drones.
Russia’s Shahed drones typically cruise at about 185kph.
SpaceX has throttled terminals by speed before. Earlier this year, SpaceX and Ukraine’s defence ministry moved to cut off Starlink terminals that Russian forces had fitted to their own drones, including by restricting service to fast-moving terminals.
On Wednesday, Zelensky argued that the apparent decision to throttle access had already led to civilian deaths, because Ukrainian interceptors that rely on the service could no longer bring down Russian drones as effectively.
Zelensky also said on X that six people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian drone attack on a grocery store in Lutsk, a western city close to the border with Poland. In a separate post after another Russian strike on Lutsk’s energy infrastructure, he wrote that Russia “is taking advantage of problems with Starlink operations to cause maximum destruction to everything that sustains everyday life”.
Also read: Trump calls Zelensky ‘not a good guy’, says Ukraine President harder to deal with than Putin
Who controls access
Musk posted on X on Wednesday: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” He added that Starlink is owned and controlled by SpaceX.
Bloomberg reported that Musk’s post appeared to refer only to the government-owned Starshield hardware, and that it seemed to conflict with the account of a person familiar with the matter who said SpaceX had limited terminal connections.
Reuters, citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, said that the order came from inside the White House, and that leaders at the US Defence Department received a message saying the Starshield service for Ukraine’s military needed to be slowed. The officials did not say who in the White House made the decision or who carried out the order.
A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv, after calls to senior officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, was told it was a White House decision. A Ukrainian official separately told AP that the country had received no explanation from SpaceX or the Pentagon.
“No such request was ever made by the president,” a senior US official said. But this denial did not rule out another US official or agency having directed the curbs.
Zelensky told the Financial Times that the change was a policy decision. “It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” he said.
The restriction came as Trump has pressed Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries, which he blames for soaring energy prices ahead of the November midterm elections in the US.
Relations went downhill once again after an October 9 meeting in Miami, where American envoys told Ukrainian officials that Washington was frustrated with Kyiv’s refinery strikes and said that the US was signing a deal with Russia to supply diesel.
Zelensky called the deal “weak” and told British journalist Piers Morgan he felt betrayed by Trump. Ukraine resumed refinery strikes on Thursday. Trump reacted strongly, saying, “I think I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin,” and urged Ukraine to hold elections.
Also read: How are Houthis able to penetrate Saudi Arabia’s air defences?
Earlier interruptions
In 2022, Musk denied a request to activate Starlink near Crimea, a Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, and reportedly ordered a shutdown of the service in another instance.
“If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk had written on X about the denied request. In 2023, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company had limited the use of Starlink on Ukrainian drones and that the technology “was never meant to be weaponised”.
Ukraine’s alternatives
Karas told AP that the latest episode has reinforced the need for backup communications, and that Ukraine’s army was preparing alternatives, though they would be more expensive and less effective.
Europe is looking for its own options. The European Commission wants to fast-track approval for a satellite venture that could rival Starlink’s capabilities and reduce reliance on the US.
Europe’s existing alternatives, Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation and the EU’s planned Iris² network, have far fewer satellites than Starlink, and Iris² is not expected to enter service until the end of the decade. Britain is separately developing low-cost long-range weapons for Ukraine that do not depend on the US for components or data.
By Thursday, some Ukrainian units said their connectivity had returned to normal, while the defence ministry source said moving receivers were working only up to 160kph. There is no certainty, at this point, on who ordered the restriction, why, or whether it could be imposed again.
