KYIV — Ukraine’s Starlink access has been restricted without warning, adding to growing confusion about whether the United States has begun limiting intelligence and military aid to Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military adviser and others with ties to the country’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
A flurry of contradictory reports over possible restrictions on access to Starlink, the satellite internet service, and to U.S. intelligence followed claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Tuesday that Ukraine had not received warnings from its Western partners on incoming ballistic attacks for two consecutive nights.
Starlink is operated by SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk, who in 2023 threatened to cut off the Ukrainian military’s access unless the U.S. government paid for it. The Pentagon agreed to pay.
Ukraine’s armed forces rely on a secure, militarized version of Starlink internet service called Starshield for key military operations, including their midrange strike campaign in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Starlink is also vital for the operation of internet-connected interceptor drones that can normally reach speeds over 180 mph.
Ukrainian officials said their military has experienced speed restrictions. “I confirm that SpaceX implemented speed restrictions on Starlink terminals while in motion last night,” Serhii Beskrestnov, a presidential adviser on military technology, said in a post on social media.
“Currently, the restriction applies to the StarShield ‘military service package’ and limits speed to 100 miles per hour,” Beskrestnov posted. “It is obvious that this move cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation.”
Previously, these systems operated without speed limits — allowing Ukraine to swiftly and effectively hit complex targets. Limits could create major problems for logistics as well as the operation of drones and other fast-moving unmanned systems. The connection might be cut off when these systems exceed the limit during operation.
Serhii Sternenko, who runs a foundation supplying drones to Ukrainian forces and previously served as an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, also reported the Starlink speed limits and later said that the speeds were being limited even further.
“It is likely that the company ‘SpaceX’ resorted to such measures at the request of the Trump administration,” Sternenko said on the messaging app Telegram. “Ordinary satellite communication terminals are currently operational.”
An employee of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry told The Washington Post that the claims regarding Starlink speed limits were still being assessed.
“The Defense Ministry themselves doesn’t yet know whether these restrictions are the result of a policy change or a technical limitation,” said the employee, who like others in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.
“They’re still trying to figure it out,” the employee said, adding: “This was not necessarily some malicious attempt to ground everyone.”
Wednesday’s outages disrupted ongoing military operations, creating immediate dangers to troops and civilians, according to Ukrainian service members.
Starshield connectivity was severed among personnel focused on air defense, leaving them unable to intercept drones and missiles, according to a Ukrainian soldier whose unit is fanned out across eastern Ukraine. The loss of connectivity also grounded attack drones that target Russian logistics and command posts, the soldier said.
Musk has not publicly commented on the claims, but in a post on X over the weekend, he appeared to support President Donald Trump’s call for Zelensky’s removal last week.
“Zelensky has gone too far,” Musk wrote. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The alarm over possible speed limits follows claims from Zelensky’s office that ballistic missiles hit Kyiv without warning Monday and Tuesday night, endangering the lives of civilians who rely on air raid sirens to get to safety in nearby bomb shelters.
“A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, no early warning from our partners. The main target was energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said in a statement late Tuesday.
During the large-scale attack overnight Tuesday, Russian ballistic and cruise missiles hit six different energy facilities across Ukraine, including Kyiv’s main power plants.
Zelensky said Wednesday morning that 39 ballistic missiles and 120 attack drones had been deployed, and that 600,000 people were without electricity. There were rolling power cuts across the capital Wednesday, and electric public transportation in some parts of the city had been suspended. The overnight attacks on Kyiv left at least four dead and 25 injured, according to city authorities.
Zelensky’s office and Ukraine’s air force later confirmed, however, that in subsequent waves of attacks, Ukraine’s partners had shared intelligence.
“At around 10:40 p.m., we reported that we had received no warnings from our partners about ballistic missiles,” Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force, said on national television. “However, during the next three waves of attacks, our partners did provide warnings about the use of ballistic missiles.”
The contradiction and confusion around the lack of intelligence appears to have originated from behind-the-scenes threats made by U.S. officials warning Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries or risk being cut off from critical U.S. weapons and intelligence.
The U.S. threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
U.S. intelligence officials warned the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington that if there are more strikes on Russian energy sites, the U.S. would immediately halt all intelligence sharing. U.S. intelligence has not been cut off, at least not in full, but the threat remains, the person said.
“The warnings were so widespread that anyone with a Ukrainian-sounding last name got a call,” the person said. The type of missile that hit Kyiv has evaded alert systems previously, but not recently, the person said.
Zelensky confirmed, in an interview Tuesday with NPR radio, that Ukrainian military officials had received warnings and threats regarding intelligence sharing — but that threats had not yet been acted upon.
Trump also told reporters Tuesday that intelligence sharing would continue. “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel. We want the war to end,” he said.
An E.U. diplomat based in Kyiv told The Post that “Zelensky has interests in suggesting that the intel has been stopped — the anti-U.S. wing around Zelensky is pushing this narrative — but I can also imagine that Trump is eager to push Zelensky. In my opinion, both scenarios are possible.”
It was not the first time that Ukrainian radar systems missed ballistic missile attacks, the diplomat noted.
Russia is barred from using Starlink on the battlefield but has attempted to use illicit terminals in its war against Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that it was “too early to draw conclusions” about whether Washington would continue to support Ukraine militarily.
“On the one hand, there are statements that assistance continues to be provided; on the other hand, there are claims that various technical problems have arisen and the information chain has been interrupted,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Regarding potential Starlink restrictions, Peskov said that “it would be better if such brilliant technologies were not used for military purposes at all.”
Ukrainian officials said that Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were a message.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had delivered “yet another negative ‘response’ to the proposal for an energy ceasefire announced by President Trump.”
Trump had announced the ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in a Truth Social post on Sunday, though neither side appeared aware. Zelensky said Monday that he was ready to sign an “energy ceasefire” but would retaliate if Russia were to continue attacking Ukrainian power grids.
“A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure — the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President,” Zelensky said Wednesday on social media. “The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale — Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States.”
Hudson and Horton reported from Washington and Morgunov from Potsdam, Germany. Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
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