Zelenskyy Says Starlink Speeds Are Back as Ukraine Logs Over 400 km/h

Credit: Starlink

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, October 24, that Starlink and Starshield service in Ukraine has been restored to the speeds the country had before the restrictions. The announcement comes after nearly two weeks of slowdowns that Kyiv says disrupted drone operations, and two days after President Trump said Elon Musk “put it back”, a claim Ukrainian officials disputed at the time.

In a video posted to X, Zelenskyy said the restoration began overnight and that “by this morning, speeds were already sufficient.” He said the fix matters for frontline logistics and for “defending Ukraine against jet-powered ‘shaheds,'” and he thanked members of Congress, senators, the media, the State Department and the President for their help. “Protecting lives matters,” he wrote.

The most important thing today is that Starlink and Starshield operations have been restored to the speeds we had before the restrictions. The speeds are now where they need to be. The restoration began overnight, and by this morning, speeds were already sufficient. This matters:

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 24, 2026

Defense Minister Yevheniy Khmara told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on Saturday that the ministry’s monitoring systems have recorded restored connectivity on equipment traveling faster than 400 km/h, or about 250 mph, and that “the connection is stable.” He credited “direct dialogue and the Ukrainian president’s persistent stance” for the result and said the ministry will keep monitoring and documenting how the service performs.

Those restrictions had cut off Starlink and Starshield connections at around 160 km/h, or 100 mph, knocking out terminals on drones and other fast-moving platforms starting around October 13. Starshield is the military version of Starlink, and Zelenskyy said as recently as Friday that the limits were still in place. By then the dispute had reached Washington and Ottawa, with Senator Richard Blumenthal giving Musk until November 5 to explain the slowdown and Prime Minister Mark Carney saying Canada doesn’t want to rely on a single provider after what happened in Ukraine.

Musk has said Starshield is controlled by the US government, with any limits on speed or usage decided by the military and ultimately the president. Trump and his administration have denied ordering the restrictions, though US officials said this week that Trump called Musk and asked him to lift them, as we reported on October 22. SpaceX, Starlink and Musk had not publicly commented on the restoration as of Saturday morning.

With speeds back to normal, the questions Blumenthal and House Democrats have put to Musk and the White House about who ordered the cap are still open. Do you think Ukraine should keep relying on Starlink, or start moving to alternatives now that service is restored?