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

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Throttling of Elon Musk’s military-grade satellite system affecting whole frontline, says Ukraine’s presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy has accused SpaceX of not telling the truth over…

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 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 put pressure on Zelenskyy to make concessions to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

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