The push follows a sudden throttling of SpaceX's military Starshield service in Ukraine that cut connections on moving terminals at 160 km/h (100 mph) and at times 60 to 70 km/h, before unrestricted speeds were restored on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times he had asked Washington for more Patriot interceptor missiles in exchange for halting strikes on Russian refineries, even if Moscow continued attacking Ukraine, and that the US responded by weakening Starlink. "It was not a technical problem, it was the will," Zelenskyy said.
The speed caps disrupted both medium-range strike drones and interceptor drones that require speeds of at least 450 km/h to counter Russian jet-powered Shahed drones. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, with any speed or usage limits decided by the US military and ultimately President Donald Trump, while White House officials told Axios the administration had nothing to do with the constraints. Republican Senator Thom Tillis called on the Pentagon inspector general to investigate Ukraine's loss of Starshield access.