Ukraine Says Musk's SpaceX Restored Military Drone Links Moving at 400 km/h
Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said the connections were stable on Saturday after more than a week of restrictions, and he credited talks with Washington.
By Adewale Fletcher ·
Satellite links used by Ukraine's military drones are working again.
Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said on Saturday that Starlink and Starshield connections were stable on equipment moving faster than 400 kilometres per hour, which is 250 miles per hour. He attributed the result to discussions with Washington and diplomacy by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The restored access ends more than a week of disruption that had affected drone operations against Russian forces.
Ukraine relies heavily on SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk, for satellite communications and drone missions. Who ordered the restrictions is still not established. US President Donald Trump has denied any role of his own while defending Musk.
The episode added pressure to the relationship between Kyiv and Washington, which had already been strained by Trump's deal to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel and to permit US imports. Earlier this month, Trump called for Ukraine to install a new president, and on Monday he said someone other than Zelenskyy should carry out negotiations for Kyiv. The two leaders had a public confrontation at the White House in February 2025.
The service restoration comes as the United States works to restart peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. Delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, more than four years after Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the planned talks on Friday, and Zelenskyy announced agreement on technical-level meetings. Fighting has not stopped: a Russian missile strike on Saturday in Lozova, in the Kharkiv region, killed a man and wounded two others, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Ukraine reported strikes inside Russia on Friday and into Saturday, including one on the Togliattikauchuk petrochemical plant in Togliatti, a major producer of synthetic rubber. Mayor Ilya Sukhikh confirmed industrial damage but no casualties. Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down a SCALP cruise missile, four Neptune missiles and 1,297 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over 24 hours, TASS reported. Those figures have not been independently confirmed.
