Ukrainian drones connected to the Pentagon-funded Starshield satellite network have flown at speeds near 250 miles an hour for the first time since the system was throttled last week, Ukraine’s defense minister announced on Saturday. It was the first sign that the speed restrictions, which have hampered crucial drone operations, might be easing.
“This is another example when direct dialogue and the persistent position of the president of Ukraine at the highest level produce results,” Yevhen Khmara, the defense minister, said in a statement. “And this result is primarily important for our front, for the military, the work of drones, logistics and communications.”
Ukraine uses Starshield for air defense and to guide drones toward targets in Russian-occupied territory. The unexplained throttling of the system deepened a growing rift that has been playing out publicly between Ukraine and the United States. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Ukrainian civilians had been left more vulnerable to Russian attack, and Ukrainian officials raised fears that the Starshield program had been slowed to force Ukraine into capitulation.
Ukrainian drone operators first saw their drones slowed to speeds lower than 40 miles an hour about 10 days ago. Many drones slowed so abruptly that they lost connection to their pilots on the ground and then fell from the sky, wasting expensive equipment.
It remains unclear who, if anyone, ordered the system to be slowed. No one in Washington has taken responsibility, a fact that only caused further confusion in Kyiv. It has also deepened divides between Congress and the White House over the U.S. approach to Russia. A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate warned the White House this week that they would block President Trump’s nominations if Ukraine’s full Starshield capabilities were not restored.
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