Ukraine says it looks like the speed limit on its military internet service has been rescinded. According to the Wall Street Journal, messaging from Ukraine Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara on Saturday morning indicated that service was back to normal after ten days of throttling.
In recent months, Ukraine has been able to generate hopeful stories about its war effort thanks in part to its use of Starlink’s Starshield, the military-grade, satellite internet provider run by SpaceX. In September, for instance, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed to be regularly intercepting the majority of Russian Shahed jet drone attacks, and the vast majority of conventional Shahed attacks.
Starshield, to be clear, is for Ukraine’s domestic efforts, and apparently does not play much of a role if any in Ukraine’s drone incursions into Russia, where it attacks oil and internet infrastructure. Oil refinery attacks had greatly upset President Trump, who said on October 10 that Zelenskyy had “better damn well stop.” Musk posted on October 10 that Zelenskyy had “gone too far.” But, crucially, the WSJ describes Starshield as mainly being used “to intercept Russian Shahed-type drones, bomb the Russian army’s logistics and stall Russia’s invasion force.”
Nonetheless, when the slowdown started on October 14, Ukrainian drones reportedly started to lose connectivity at the speeds necessary to chase certain Russian drones. On October 16, Zelenskyy posted on X that the slowdown was preventing attacks from being intercepted. “We couldn’t use a tool that helps protect people.
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