How Starlink slowdown hit Ukraine’s front line soldiers pushing Russia back

Ukrainian soldiers set up a Starlink satellite communication terminal at a combat position in the Donetsk region Oct. 16. Dmytro Smolienko / NurPhoto via Getty Add NBC News to Google Oct. 23, 2026, PM EDT . Then, late last Tuesday, a drone launched toward Russian troops suddenly lost connection. “As it was picking up speed, contact with the drone was lost in an instant,” according to the commander, 47, who is serving on the border between the eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhzhia regions, and only wanted to be identified . The drone fell to the ground, aborting the mission, Flint said in a series of messages on WhatsApp. He fears the technology inside “may have fallen into enemy hands.” “Only after analyzing the flight, it became clear that the issue was specifically related to the Starlink speed limit,” he added. Ukraine said last week that limits were imposed without warning on its use of Starshield, the military variant of the Starlink internet service run ’s SpaceX, affecting battlefield missions reliant on it. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Musk had restored the service in Ukraine, but Kyiv said Friday that it was not seeing any lifting of restrictions. Trump did not say why the limits were in place, though Musk had previously said that “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U. S. military and ultimately POTUS.” Ukraine had also warned of gaps in intelligence sharing from the U. S., something the White House has denied. Ukrainian soldiers in the front line town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, in September. FOR SUBSCRIBERSMAHA votes may be up for grabs FOR SUBSCRIBERSMore than 500 ads about Jeffrey Epstein and pedophiles have run this election cycle FOR SUBSCRIBERSVivek Ramaswamy supporters criticize his controversial ad FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe FDA says there’s no estrogen patch shortage. Women are struggling to fill prescriptions. FOR SUBSCRIBERSMAHA votes may be up for grabs FOR SUBSCRIBERSMore than 500 ads about Jeffrey Epstein and pedophiles have run this election cycle FOR SUBSCRIBERSVivek Ramaswamy supporters criticize his controversial ad FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe FDA says there’s no estrogen patch shortage. Women are struggling to fill prescriptions. Slide 1 of 1 That leaves them with a radio as the only alternative for communication, Dovbush, 31, said, while a lack of reliable connection has impacted reconnaissance drones used to identify targets, he added. “It’s a knife in the back,” Flint, the drone unit commander, said of the apparent withdrawal of U. He said his unit relies on Starshield to fly attack and reconnaissance drones at anything from Russian troops to command posts to tanks. “Its primary role is maintaining the connection with the drone, so this is a very significant loss for us,” he added.