As confusion reigned over who was responsible for abruptly imposing limits on Ukraine's use of the Starshield satellite system, one thing did become obvious: Kyiv remains painfully at the mercy of U.S. whims. Without the military-grade sister service of Elon Musk's Starlink, Ukrainian drone pilots found last week that their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) couldn't fly fast enough to effectively hit Russian targets before Moscow shoots them down. Alongside this, Kyiv said it hadn't received the usual intelligence data on incoming, and often devastating, Russian ballistic missile strikes leveled at its major cities.
Although Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Sunday intelligence flows had resumed, the two near-simultaneous drops in vital U.S. services in Ukraine became an uncomfortable demonstration of how much Ukraine still leans on its foreign backers—especially an unpredictable U.S. under President Donald Trump—to effectively fight Russian troops. The pause came as already strained relations between Washington and Kyiv were pulled even further, as Trump painted Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries, rather than the U.S. war in Iran, as responsible for sky-high fuel prices in the run-up to the midterm elections. When Starshield is fully operational, Kyiv's aerial and sea drones can take out Russian logistics, munitions depots and command-and-control centers nearly 125 miles from the front line, even when battered by electronic jammers.
Although Kyiv didn't apportion blame directly over a lack of early warnings for missile onslaughts and Trump denied halting the flow of intelligence, U.S. systems are the main way for Ukraine getting advance warning of ballistic missile launches. America previously blocked sending Kyiv U.S.-derived intelligence streams in early 2025. In response, Ukrainian officials pleaded for the old levels of access to be restored, and Ukraine's former drone czar said a fully functional Starshield connection was "critical" for Kyiv.
The events show "the continuing dependence of Ukraine on Starlink, the U.S. technology sector, and the U.S. administration very clearly," said Anthony King, the director of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter in the U.K. "It was a very good reminder" of the dynamic between Washington and Kyiv, Bohdan Sas, the co-founder of Ukrainian defense technology firm Buntar Aerospace, told Newsweek. "Militaries around the world definitely have to take note." On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the White House had not ordered the slowdown.
But anonymous U.S. officials told last week the Pentagon received a message from inside the White House, saying Starshield speed had to be restricted for the Ukrainian military. Musk, meanwhile, had batted attention toward the Trump administration, saying Starshield systems are "owned and controlled" by the U.S. government, meaning "any limits on speed or usage" are dictated by the U.S. military, and, ultimately, the U.S. president. Dimko Zhluktenko, a junior sergeant with Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment, told Newsweek on Thursday that Starshield-enabled drones are now able to fly at around 100 miles per hour, around double the speed they could reach on Wednesday.
Previously there were no speed restrictions, he said. Zelensky, in a fresh update on Monday, said Starshield speeds were still capped at some points along the front line and would be discussed with Ukrainian allies at "every level." There's no real alternative to Starshield or Starlink for Ukraine, for now. Ukrainian forces mostly use the general Starlink network for communications and data transfers, rather than guiding strikes on the battlefield.
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