EU faces growing pressure to address Ukraine reliance on Starlink
Ukrainian forces suffered critical setbacks after speed caps on Elon Musk's Starlink network left troops unable to shoot down jet-powered Shahed drones targeting civilian infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the restriction a dangerous surprise. Reuters reported that the order to throttle the military-grade Starshield service came from the White House after Washington pressed Kyiv to stop hitting Russian oil refineries ahead of November's midterm elections. While Zelenskyy noted talks with France and signaled hope that Washington might lift the limits, the incident laid bare Europe's strategic vulnerabilities.
European lawmakers warned that continental defense cannot depend on the goodwill of an American billionaire or Donald Trump's decisions. French MEP Christophe Grudler urged Brussels to finalize talks, ongoing since March, granting Ukraine access to the EU's Govsatcom network, which Norway and Iceland joined earlier this year. Grudler also demanded faster work on IRIS², the EU's sovereign satellite alternative scheduled for 2030. European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier confirmed talks with Kyiv are underway. Simultaneously, legislators including Matthias Ecke and Aura Salla are moving to curb Starlink's dominance, pushing to award prized low-Earth orbit frequencies licensed to U.S. firms until next year to European operators instead.
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