Musk slammed amid reports of Starlink being slowed down in Ukraine - again

After several weeks of back-and-forth between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Donald Trump’s White House over who gave the order to slow down access to Starlink and its military-grade version Starshield in Ukraine, the war-torn country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on 24 October operations had been “restored to the speeds we had before the restrictions” and they are “where they need to be”.

Yet this week, Zelensky claimed the country was once again facing restrictions on access to Starshield.

In an address to the European Political Community summit on Thursday (12 November), Zelensky claimed the country had “detected restrictions” on Starshield in “temporarily occupied” areas.

"The speed limit is back at 161 kilometers per hour – that’s 100 miles per hour," he said.

“This directly affects our ability to intercept Russian jet-powered ‘shahed’ drones. These drones come from those areas, and because of the speed restrictions, we simply cannot catch up with them in time.

“Near the frontline, we cannot use our aircraft. Only drone interceptors can operate there. And without the speed we need, shooting down these “shaheds” becomes much harder.

“This means more Russian strikes get through, and more of our people are killed by Russia. We are trying to get the details from the American side, but so far, we know very little."

The claims have since been condemned by social media users, with foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen saying on X/Twitter: “The board of SpaceX should oust Musk for throttling Starlink / Starshield to restrict Ukraine’s defense from Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and killing of Ukrainian civilians the way Nvidia ousted Jensen Huang”:

Blogger Kate Bohuslavska labelled it "a crystal-clear attempt to pressure Ukraine during negotiations instead of pressuring the aggressor. Shame!!!!!"

Musk has not responded publicly to Zelensky’s claims, and SpaceX has been approached by indy100 for comment.

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