Zelensky: Publicity Helped Restore Starlink Speeds in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that publicity around restrictions on the Starlink satellite system helped get it working again at the speed Ukraine needs. He spoke in an interview with the TSN-Tyzhden programme, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda on Sunday, October 25.

Asked by a journalist, he said: "I think that is exactly what helped. It was not the main idea of our tactics with our partners, we are open and direct, but it worked."

Thanks to Washington

Zelensky thanked the Americans for restoring Starlink and for sharing intelligence. "We have a result: our intelligence on Russian ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine works one hundred percent. And today (as of October 24 - ed.), for the first time in a long while after such an emotional dialogue between us and the Americans, Starlink has resumed working," he said.

He added that the US midterm elections could bring various challenges, "but for today this is a positive."

How the dispute unfolded

Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, earlier claimed that Ukrainian forces had allegedly violated the terms of use of this type of communication. In his view, if Starlink were switched off, "the Ukrainian front would collapse instantly." On October 21, after word of the slowdown became public, Musk wrote: "Any limits on speed or use are accepted by the US armed forces and, ultimately, by the US president."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk ordered the speed of the military version of Starlink for Ukraine to be cut, which left some Ukrainian strike drones and interceptor drones practically unusable. On October 22 the paper learned that US President Donald Trump had allegedly phoned Musk and asked him to lift the restrictions on the military version in Ukraine. Zelensky had also reported that on different sections of the front, Starlink and Starshield equipment stopped working at speeds of 130-161 kilometres per hour, which slowed logistics and limited the use of Ukrainian drones.

We covered the fix as it happened: Zelensky confirmed that Starlink and Starshield were restored to pre-restriction speeds, while a Kyiv adviser answered Musk's claim of rule violations.