Elon Musk’s SpaceX has imposed new speed restrictions on the StarShield service used by Starlink terminals installed on Ukrainian drones. On Oct. 14, Ukrainian military communications and electronic warfare specialist Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov reported on his Telegram channel that the terminals now work only at speeds of up to 100 mph (about 160 kph).
He said the restrictions have affected StarShield’s “military package”:
“Our Defense Forces received no warning about these restrictions, and this led to the disruption of a number of missions. It is obvious that this decision cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation.”
The new limit means the service can no longer be used on jet-powered drones or other high-speed unmanned aircraft.
Georgy Trishkin, a missile-launch analyst and commentator on spaceflight and rocketry, told The Insider that standard Starlink service on drones traveling faster than 160 kph had stopped working in 2025, while StarShield continued to function until Oct. 13.
“Military StarShield is physically a different system and a different service. It is available only to defense and government customers. Starlink stopped working under these conditions last year and never worked on Russian territory in the first place. Drones using it would lose their connection when crossing zones near the border and switch to other methods, including mobile networks using Russian SIM cards.
The decision was not made by SpaceX, but by the customer in the United States [meaning the Pentagon — The Insider]. That does not absolve the company of responsibility, but it is important to understand who made the decision and which service it concerned.”
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also commented on the move.
“Hey, Elon Musk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, we are watching you,” he wrote on Musk’s X platform.
A day earlier, on Oct. 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with NPR that the Trump administration had threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Kyiv unless Ukrainian forces halted long-range drone strikes on oil refineries inside Russia.
