Zelensky Confirms Starlink and Starshield Restored to Pre-Restriction Speeds

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Saturday, October 24, that restrictions on Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine had been lifted by the morning and thanked everyone who helped restore communications, according to his address.

"We restored the operation of Starlink and Starshield at the speed that existed before all these restrictions. The speed now is what we need," Zelensky said. According to him, the restoration began overnight, and by morning speeds were already sufficient for the connection to be used.

"This is very important, it carries weight for our frontline logistics and for defending Ukraine from jet-powered Shaheds," he said.

Speed measurements

Earlier, the Defence Forces and Defence Ministry specialists recorded Starlink/Starshield working at speeds above 161 km/h. The ministry later officially confirmed that it was recording speeds above 400 km/h and a stable connection.

How the restriction came to light

A few days ago, Zelensky said that at 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. On October 16, US President Donald Trump said the White House had not taken part in restricting Ukraine's use of the system, while The Telegraph reported that SpaceX head Elon Musk had offered Trump to limit the bandwidth of the Starlink and Starshield networks used by the Ukrainian military.

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