Abstract:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday stepped up his criticism of SpaceX, saying the company's speed limits on its military-grade Starshield satellite terminals would have dangerous political consequences and weaken Ukraine's critical air defense capabilities.
Zelensky said that the "Star Shield" terminal operating in the areas temporarily occupied by Russia in Ukraine has been limited to a maximum speed of 161 kilometers per hour in the past five days, which hinders Ukraine's military capabilities.
Zelensky said that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has conducted official negotiations with SpaceX on this issue.
"These restrictions have been in place for five days. They claim it's some kind of technical problem, but we don't believe that's the case," Zelensky told reporters on Saturday.
"To impose restrictions in this regard would be to admit to a certain extent that those temporarily occupied territories do not belong to us. Because of this, I believe we have the right to raise this issue and restore the original speed of traffic - ensuring that there are no longer any restrictions."
Zelensky said these speed restrictions made it more difficult for Ukrainian air defense forces to intercept Russian jet drones and made Ukrainian cities more vulnerable. He said he had instructed senior military and foreign ministry officials to handle the issue and seek relevant clarifications.
This is the second such outage in recent weeks. In mid-October, Ukrainian officials said SpaceX had limited the operating speed of Starlink and its StarShield communications system (limiting it to about 160 kilometers per hour, or 100 miles per hour) amid tensions with the Trump administration over Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries. Subsequently, related services were restored on October 24.
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