Ukraine says Starlink still restricted after Trump says limits lifted

Ukraine is still experiencing restrictions on Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, its defence ministry has said, contradicting claims by Donald Trump that the limits had been lifted.

Sources inside the ministry told the BBC there was "currently no confirmation that these restrictions have been lifted," and that the military was constantly monitoring the network. Instances of drones losing their connection at speeds of up to 161km/h have been recorded, the sources said.

The row broke out last week when Kyiv said uplink speeds to the low-Earth-orbit satellites had been slowed, hampering its use of attack drones. Musk denied he was behind the slowdown, later suggesting that the US military controlled Starshield, the secure variant of the service used for some of Ukraine's operations.

Trump said this week that access had been restored, but refused to say whether he had personally called Musk to ask for the restrictions to be lifted. The White House has repeatedly denied deliberately limiting the network in Ukraine.

Ukraine relies heavily on both Starlink and Starshield, which beam connectivity from thousands of satellites in low orbit, keeping communications alive in remote frontline areas. The network does not operate inside Russia, so Kyiv can only use it for operations within Ukraine.

The dispute unfolded amid a tense diplomatic row between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier on Thursday, Zelensky said the system's speed was still reduced, adding that he was "waiting to hear" from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had promised an update.