SpaceX not being honest about ‘political’ reasons for slowing Starshield, says Zelenskyy

Throttling of Elon Musk’s military-grade satellite system affecting whole frontline, says Ukraine’s president

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused SpaceX of not telling the truth over restrictions to Ukraine’s Starshield satellite system, saying that the decision to impose speed limits appears to be “political” rather than “technical”.

Speaking on Friday, Ukraine’s president said the restrictions affecting Ukrainian drones had been in place for five days. They could no longer fly at speeds of more than 161km/h (100mph), he said, with connections at higher speeds lost.

As a result, incoming jet-powered Russian Shahed drones could no longer be intercepted. Ukraine’s own mid-range strikes against military targets in Russian-occupied territory were also severely affected, he said.

Speaking to the Guardian and other journalists at the presidential palace in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said he had asked his military leadership to raise the issue with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, as well as with the Pentagon and the US state department.

There was “no clear explanation” as to why Ukraine’s operations were being throttled. He said SpaceX had told Kyiv that there were “no restrictions”. The claim, Zelenskyy suggested, was untrue with problems detected across the “entire frontline”.

“There have been discussions with the company at the institutional level. The ministry of defence spoke with SpaceX. They replied: ‘We are not imposing any restrictions.’ They say it is some kind of technical issue. We do not believe that is the case,” Zelenskyy said.

He added: “The question is not whether we believe them or not. There may be some further checks. But every day, we test this in different directions. Every day, we get the same confirmation. So these are not isolated cases; they are widespread.”

Ukraine suspects the slowdown is a deliberate US tactic, designed to pressure Zelenskyy to make concessions to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. It follows a similar issue last month, and coincided with US-brokered talks last week in Abu Dhabi featuring Ukrainian and Russian representatives.

The Kremlin insists Ukraine give up the entire eastern Donbas region.

He categorically ruled out giving away further land to Russian “terrorists”. Zelenskyy also revealed that US negotiators, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and real estate developer Steve Witkoff, had asked if Ukraine was willing to give up the Donbas in exchange for membership of Nato, or Nato-like security guarantees.

Details of the proposal were vague, Zelenskyy said. They did not appear to involve US peacekeeping troops on the ground, he added. He said the war could only end with a ceasefire agreement, alongside meaningful security guarantees, underwritten by western partners.

Zelenskyy also dismissed an offer by Putin for a “humanitarian mission” in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka as a ploy. Russia has called for a five-day ceasefire, modelled on a truce last month in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, from where civilians were evacuated.

“It’s an absolutely primitive move. Putin simply wants us to leave Kostiantynivka so that they can move in and occupy the entire city that way,” Zelenskyy said. He said civilians had already fled the area as fierce street by street fighting continued, with huge Russian losses.

Zelenskyy said he had proposed repeating the Oleshky truce in nearby Russian-occupied villages and towns in south Ukraine, along the Dnipro River. Putin rejected this. His true goal was to swallow up Kostiantynivka and the Ukrainian garrison cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Zelenskyy said.

He also called Russian attempts to discuss Europe’s security architecture – a topic raised last week by the Trump administration – as “concerning”. The Kremlin has called for Nato to return to its pre-1997 configuration, before eastern European countries including the Baltic states joined the alliance.

Putin first made this demand in 2021, in the runup to his big Ukraine invasion. Its revival after nearly five years of full-scale war, Zelenskyy said, was an alarming signal, indicative of imperial thinking. “Putin’s desire to change borders in Europe is a fact,” Zelenskyy said, stressing: “We cannot turn everything upside down.”

Ukraine’s president said his recent conversations with European leaders who met in Dublin had brought tangible results. They included pledges from Denmark to supply ammunition for F-16 jets – used to shoot down Russian drones – as well as energy support packages for Kyiv and other cities.

Russia was “betting everything” on its winter campaign, he added. In recent months Moscow has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian cities, in an attempt to make civilians capitulate. The US Congress could pressure Putin to de-escalate by passing laws on sanctions and giving Ukraine weapons, he said.