"As of today, Starshield's operation in motion has resumed and continues; we are recording this from unit reports," the source told journalists, according to Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service and Ukrinform. The restrictions have been fully removed, the source said.
The outage became known a day earlier. Volunteer Serhiy Sternenko Beskrestnov wrote that the restriction applied to the military Starshield service package and that Ukrainian servicemembers had not been warned about it. "It is obvious that this action cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation," he wrote.
The Bell reported that overnight into October 14, Ukrainian strike drones and interceptors began losing satellite connection as soon as they accelerated. According to a Ukrainian Defense Ministry representative, the connection dropped at speeds between 72 and 161 km/h. A commander of a strike drone unit in southeastern Ukraine told Politico that strikes on Russian logistics in the Donetsk region, on the highway to Crimea and in Crimea itself stopped. Air defense was also affected: jet-powered Geran drones fly at about 480 km/h, and interceptors that lose connection at 160 km/h could not catch them.
Ukrainska Pravda reported that one commander sent a video in which two Ukrainian drones rising above a cloud "lose" connection and cannot continue their mission.
No one has officially acknowledged imposing the restrictions. A senior U.S. official told Axios that the administration had nothing to do with the restrictions, and Zelensky's advisers were told at the White House that it does not control SpaceX, according to the outlet. Elon Musk claims the opposite: Starshield belongs to the U.S. government, and the limits are set by the military "and ultimately the president."
Zelensky, in an interview with the FT, called what happened not a technical problem but a matter of will. According to him, Ukraine asked the U.S. for more air defense and in response got a deterioration of Starlink. The Washington Post reported that on October 12 the Ukrainian embassy in Washington received a warning: strikes on Russian refineries must stop, or Kyiv would be deprived of American intelligence data.
Similar outages at several units occurred on September 11, 12 and 17, after visits by Trump special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kyiv and Moscow, a strike drone pilot told Politico.
Strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have now been halted. "The block has been lifted. We've had enough," Zelensky told the FT. Overnight into October 15, Ukraine attacked a Rosneft refinery in the Ryazan region.