Zelensky Says Starshield Limits Disrupted Ukraine's Front Lines

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that restrictions on Starshield disrupted Ukrainian military operations along the front lines that week, according to The New York Times.

Starshield is a satellite internet system developed by SpaceX and controlled by the U.S. government. Zelensky said speed limits of about 100 miles per hour were being enforced for Ukrainian devices connected to it. He said the latest limits took effect on Monday and were being enforced over Russian-occupied territories, not over all of Ukraine.

Zelensky described the November throttling as the second time in recent weeks that Ukraine's Starshield connectivity had been throttled, meaning its speed was deliberately capped. In his nightly speech, he said the limits hurt Ukraine's ability to use newly developed interceptors, weapons designed to shoot down incoming objects, to protect its cities from Russia's jet-powered drones.

SpaceX told Axios that Ukraine's claim about throttled Starshield connectivity was false.