The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is trying to determine the reason for the Starlink service disruption affecting the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has begun consultations with the United States, SpaceX, and NATO partners regarding the unilateral restriction of the functionality of satellite terminals belonging to the specialized military Starlink package—Starshield.

According to a source in the defense ministry who spoke to Ukrinform, on the night of October 14, 2026, SpaceX, without warning the Ukrainian Armed Forces, set a speed limit for the terminals at 160 km/h. If this speed is exceeded, the connection is automatically lost; disconnections are recorded in the range of 72 to 161 km/h across different units and types of equipment.

These sudden restrictions significantly complicated the execution of combat tasks and UAV missions—particularly those involving interceptor drones and “mid-strike” drones—and also negatively impacted frontline logistics, reconnaissance, and relay systems. Currently, the Ministry of Defense is gathering information from all military units, checking the status of the network, and deploying backup communication channels.

A source in the Ministry of Defense reported this to Ukrinform.

On the night of October 14, SpaceX imposed speed limits on Starlink terminals for the StarShield military service package. Serhiy Flash, an expert in electronic warfare, reported this, specifying that the current limit is 100 miles per hour (about 161 km/h). According to Serhiy Sternenko, an activist, volunteer, and former advisor to the Minister of Defense, this disruption caused several important missions to fail.

In the Huliaipole sector, units of the 7th Corps of the Airborne Assault Forces experienced problems with Starlink connectivity on the night of October 14 due to data transmission speed limitations. This affected the control of drones and led to the cancellation of some combat missions.