Zelensky presses US and Musk to remove Starshield speed limits blocking missile defence
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the US military satellite internet system Starshield, a military-grade Starlink service owned by Elon Musk and provided to Ukraine by Washington, is still running too slowly for Ukraine to intercept Russian missiles and drones. Ukraine uses ordinary Starlink for battlefield communications and Starshield to intercept threats in its airspace. Speed limits first appeared in October; after about a week the service seemed to recover, but Kyiv says the curbs remain along the front and in occupied territory. Zelensky urged officials to work as closely as possible with the US government and Musk’s company, saying lives and energy infrastructure ahead of winter depend on lifting the limits and that it is important to be on the right side of history. Musk blamed the US government, which controls Starshield; President Donald Trump denied responsibility and said he had told Musk to “put it back.” On Sunday Zelensky said interceptor drones lose their operators at 161km/h (100mph) and cannot catch Iranian-designed Russian jet-powered Shaheds targeting electricity substations. A shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors has left Ukraine more exposed. Overnight Russia hit energy sites in Zaporizhzhia and the Sumy, Odesa, Zhytomyr and Kirovohrad regions, railways in Dnipro, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and other targets; scores were hurt, two people were killed in Mena in Chernihiv region, and further deaths were reported in Taganrog and occupied Luhansk. Ukraine said its forces struck a petrochemical plant and an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, on the night of 15 November. The Starshield dispute coincided with tension over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, which Trump said had pushed global prices higher. Estonia said it will close its Russia border crossings from 1 December after a suspected GRU-ordered arson attempt on drone maker Threod Systems, with eight people detained.
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