Ukraine's military is once again facing speed limits on Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that military units had detected restrictions that cut off drones moving faster than 161 kph (100 mph), along the entire front line and in Russian-occupied territory. He said a military investigation found the limits were not random errors.
On Friday, he said there are still "no clear explanations."
The cap matters most against Russia's jet-powered drones, the targets Ukraine's interceptor drones are built to chase.
"Without the speed we need, shooting down these Shaheds becomes much harder, and this means more Russian strikes get through and more of our people are killed," Zelenskyy said in a video posted Thursday.
Russia launched 117 drones at Ukraine overnight into Friday, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old, Ukrainian authorities said. In Kyiv, a strike hit a medical facility of Ukraine's National Academy of Medical Sciences around 3 a.m., injuring one person and forcing staff to evacuate 30 patients. One person was killed in Odesa. In Zaporizhzhia, a single attack hit two apartment blocks and wounded 30 people, including six children, officials said.
Ukrainian officials are asking the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon and SpaceX to explain and fix the restrictions, Zelenskyy said. SpaceX has denied making any change. "This is false," a SpaceX official said Thursday. "There has been no change."
RELATED STORY | Ukraine disputes Elon Musk's claim that its military violated Starlink's terms of service
In Washington, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina are expressing outrage.
"Congress must determine who ordered or approved these disruptions and hold those responsible accountable," the senators said in a joint statement Thursday. "The Pentagon and SpaceX must preserve all records, turn over the contracts and communications that Congress needs to establish the facts and put safeguards in place so this never happens again."
It remains unclear who is calling the shots: the Pentagon or Elon Musk.
It has happened before. Last month, Musk acknowledged that SpaceX had throttled Starlink service in Ukraine for about a week. He had earlier written on X that limits on Starshield are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS." In late October, the Pentagon's inspector general turned down a bipartisan request from senators to investigate those disruptions.
RELATED STORY | Trump admin offers mixed messages on limits to Ukraine's Starshield access
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with Zelenskyy in Dublin this week. More talks are planned, and the envoys say European negotiators will join the next round.
The talks have yet to stop the strikes.
