Ukrainian drone units began testing speed limits Thursday evening, shortly after Trump told reporters that Musk had restored Starlink. While some tests recorded speeds of up to 200 km/h over the Black Sea and saw improvement, the drones still quickly lost signal as soon as they flew above the 160 km/h speed limit.
“So the key point is this: we accelerate above 180 km/h, fly for a few minutes, the connection drops. It drops to 140-150 km/h and then is restored – but the situation is better,” a drone pilot from Ukraine’s highest drone unit known as Magyar’s Birds told POLITICO. “So it works better, but with constant connection interruptions,” explained the pilot, whose call sign is Léon.
The speed limit imposed on Starshield, Starlink’s service designed for military purposes, has blocked key operations and partially disabled crucial drone interceptors against Russian Shaheds attack drones.
Musk said the U.S. government controls Starshield, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration cannot direct SpaceX or Musk on restrictions or slowdowns of Starlink services in Ukraine because it is a private company.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued that the Starlink restriction was a planned operation aimed specifically at restricting Starshield’s operating speed over Ukraine. The Ukrainian government said it had not been told why this happened for days. However, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump called Musk and asked him to lift the restrictions.
“I don’t want to say it. It’s a very interesting situation. My relationship with Elon is very good. I don’t want to comment on that, whether I called or someone else called… The bottom line: He handed it over,” Trump told reporters Thursday evening.
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