Kyiv Confirms Starlink Links Restored for High-Speed Military Drones

Ukraine’s military has regained full access to Starlink satellite services, ending a disruption that lasted more than a week and affected drone operations against Russian forces. Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara announced on Saturday that connections for Starlink and Starshield are now stable on equipment moving at speeds above 400 kilometres per hour, or 250 miles per hour. This threshold is critical for the high-speed drones Ukraine employs in its conflict with Russia.

Khmara attributed the restoration to diplomatic efforts involving President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and direct talks with Washington. The move resolves a technical bottleneck that left many Ukrainian drones without a reliable communication link during the outage. The source of the restrictions remains officially unclear, though the episode has intensified tensions between Kyiv and the United States.

The satellite outage arrived amid existing friction over US policy. President Donald Trump recently called for a change in Ukrainian leadership and suggested that a figure other than Zelenskyy should lead peace negotiations. These comments followed a public disagreement at the White House in February 2025. Trump has denied ordering the Starlink restrictions while defending Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX provides the critical infrastructure for Ukrainian communications.

The resolution of the connectivity issue occurs just before a scheduled round of peace talks. Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the agenda on Friday, while Zelenskyy indicated agreement on technical-level meetings. The talks are the first major diplomatic engagement since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

On the ground, fighting continued despite the diplomatic maneuvering. A Russian missile strike on Lozova in Kharkiv region killed one person and wounded two on Saturday, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov. In the north, a Russian attack on Chernihiv killed one man and wounded at least 25 others. In the east, shelling in Kramatorsk killed one person and wounded six, including three children, while attacks in Sloviansk killed a 62-year-old woman and wounded four.

Ukraine reported strikes inside Russian territory on Friday and into Saturday. Targets included the Togliattikauchuk petrochemical plant in Togliatti, where Mayor Ilya Sukhikh confirmed industrial damage but no casualties. Ukrainian forces also claimed a hit on the Proton electronics plant in Oryol, a site that produces missile components. Regional Governor Andrei Klychkov reported three deaths in a separate attack on an unidentified facility in that region.

Russian Defence Ministry data, reported by TASS, claimed that air defences intercepted one SCALP cruise missile, four Neptune missiles, and 1,297 fixed-wing drones over a 24-hour period. These figures have not been independently verified. The restoration of satellite links provides Ukraine with a clearer operational picture as it prepares for the upcoming negotiations in Abu Dhabi.