Explainer-What is going on with SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine?
WASHINGTON/KYIV, Oct 23 : Ukraine's military has been hit this month by restrictions on Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite communications system. Its receivers stopped functioning when mounted on fast-moving objects such as drones, jeopardising some combat and air defence missions.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that SpaceX boss Elon Musk had restored services, although he has denied having spoken to Musk personally about it. But Ukrainian defence and military sources told Reuters on Friday that speed restrictions on Starshield remained in place.
HOW DOES UKRAINE USE STARLINK AND STARSHIELD?
Ukraine's military uses both Starlink for communications and Starshield for specialised military purposes.
The satellite internet service has become the lifeblood of frontline communication between units, who say there is currently no rival with the capabilities of SpaceX's products.
Starshield receivers, largely impervious to radio jamming, are used as onboard guidance systems and to provide links to a remote pilot for Ukrainian drones, including deep behind Russian lines inside Ukraine. But the recent limitation cuts them off when moving faster than 160 kilometres per hour (100 mph).
Ukrainian officials say that hinders drones used for strikes on Russian targets deep inside Ukraine and in some high-speed interceptors to counter Russian drone attacks.
Ukraine's use of Starshield-enabled mid-range attack drones has been a major factor this year in turning the tide on the battlefield, allowing remote pilots to guide drones striking moving targets such as Russian supply trucks and trains.
And fast-moving interceptor drones are one of Ukraine's few systems to protect its cities from one of Russia's own major innovations of recent months: jet-engine-powered attack drones, now used in strikes each night.
WHO GAVE THE ORDER TO RESTRICT IT?
Neither Musk nor the US government has acknowledged responsibility for curtailing Starlink or Starshield in Ukraine, and both have said publicly such decisions could only have been taken by the other.
Reuters reported last week that the order to limit the system came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that the throttling had been ordered personally by Musk.
After the limitations became public, Musk said that Starshield was owned and controlled by the US government, and that any limits on its speed or usage were decided by the US military and ultimately by Trump. He contrasted this with the commercial Starlink system, which he said was not designed or authorised for military use.
Trump has denied being involved in any decision concerning the slowdown. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that decisions regarding Ukraine's access to Starlink were up to SpaceX and Musk, not the White House.
The restriction comes amid a low point in relations between Kyiv and Washington as Trump seeks to push Kyiv into accepting stronger concessions in a peace deal with Moscow.
Trump has also been pressuring Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, although Starshield is not used on drones conducting those attacks as it does not operate over Russian territory.
HOW DOES STARLINK WORK?
Starlink, the main profit engine of SpaceX, is a satellite internet network of more than 11,000 satellites that beam broadband service directly to user terminals about the size of a folded newspaper. Its roughly 13 million subscribers range from households and hikers to shipping companies and major airlines.
Since launching its first Starlink satellites in 2019 aboard reusable SpaceX rockets, the company has built a vast low-Earth-orbit constellation that blankets much of the planet, delivering faster connections than traditional communications satellites, which typically operate much farther from Earth and in far smaller numbers.
WHAT IS STARSHIELD?
Starshield is a SpaceX business unit that develops military and intelligence satellite systems for the Pentagon.
While its missions are separate from Starlink's commercial broadband service, the distinction is not always clear-cut: Starshield's secure communications services use enhanced encryption and dedicated terminals, but rely on the vast Starlink satellite constellation as their backbone.
In addition to secure communications, SpaceX says the militarized version can also provide users with Earth observation and the ability to integrate sensors or other payloads.
The Pentagon, Starshield's largest customer, has spent billions of dollars on both Starlink and Starshield services. It has also bought dedicated Starshield satellites, including communications spacecraft for missile-warning missions and a spy constellation for the National Reconnaissance Office, Reuters reported in 2024.
Questions over the relationship between Starlink and Starshield have persisted since Russia threatened Western satellites supporting Ukraine in 2022. SpaceX unveiled Starshield later that year, but the secrecy surrounding national security space programs has left the precise boundaries between the two systems opaque.
Those distinctions became a point of contention earlier this year when the Pentagon clashed with SpaceX over higher prices for satellite services used by military drones during the Iran conflict, Reuters reported. SpaceX argued that some customers paying roughly $5,000 per terminal for Starlink should instead have been using Starshield services costing five times as much.
