Musk turns on Ukraine by limiting Starlink

Elon Musk has turned on Ukraine by imposing limits on his Starlink devices, Kyiv has claimed.

Advisers to Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that military missions had been scuppered after restrictions were implemented on the critical communications devices without warning.

Mr Musk’s SpaceX company imposed a 100mph “speed limit” on the Starshield military package of satellite devices, inhibiting Ukraine’s mid-range and long-range strikes, current and former officials said.

On Saturday, Mr Musk said Mr Zelensky had “gone too far” in his strikes on Russian oil infrastructure.

Relations have deteriorated between Kyiv and Washington after Donald Trump agreed to waive sanctions on Russia to import diesel to ease fuel prices and called for Mr Zelensky to be ousted.

The US has also threatened to suspend intelligence-sharing to force Ukraine to stop its refinery strikes, while Mr Zelensky has claimed he stopped receiving warnings from allies about Russian missile attacks.

Under the new Starlink measures, terminals moving faster than 100mph will lose or partially lose their satellite connection, potentially cutting off live video feeds, remote control and real-time tracking for military units and drones.

The slowdown will affect Ukraine’s ability to conduct medium-range strikes and to use interceptor drones to counter incoming long-range Russian drone attacks, a Ukrainian defence ministry source and a military source said.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Mr Zelensky on defence technologies, added: “Our forces were not given notice of this limit, and this has resulted in the disruption of a number of missions.

“This action is clearly not a coincidence and is related to the current political situation.”

Serhii Sternenko, a popular Ukrainian blogger and former adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of defence, said some military reports suggested restrictions on the use of Starlink terminals had been tightened even further, causing communications to drop off at speeds above 44mph.