Khmara Says Ukraine's Drones Back at 250 MPH After Satellite Throttling

Ukraine's military has regained full Starlink speeds for its drones, Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said on Saturday.

Khmara told reporters that Defense Ministry monitoring systems in Ukraine were showing stable connections on objects moving faster than 250 mph. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said checks confirmed that Starlink and Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade service, were running at the correct speed. Zelenskyy said the restoration began overnight and that usable speeds were available by morning. "Now the speed is what we need," he said.

Commanders reported lost drones and disrupted missions during the more than a week of restrictions on Starshield. Zelenskyy said restored service matters for front-line logistics and for defending against Iranian-made "Shahed" drones that Russia regularly launches. Khmara credited "direct dialogue" and Zelenskyy's diplomacy with Washington for the outcome, and said the service matters most "for our front, for the military, the work of drones, logistics and communications." Zelenskyy thanked Americans and "all our partners, who took all this seriously and are really helping us."

The satellite system is built by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which Ukraine has relied on for years against Russian attacks. Questions remain about who ordered the interruptions. President Donald Trump has said he did not make the call, while also saying Musk should not be blamed.

The disruption coincided with a U.S. push to end the war. Russia agreed on Wednesday to resume three-way talks with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to a localized ceasefire around Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in the southern Kherson region, brokered by first lady Melania Trump.

Relations between Kyiv and Washington were already strained by Trump's reported deal with Moscow on Russian diesel imports, which Ukraine viewed as a betrayal.