WASHINGTON, October 16. /TASS/. A group of US senators believes that the Department of Defense’s Inspector General should carry out an inquiry into the recent disruptions of Starlink and Starshield services in Ukraine, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said in a statement.
Shaheen and eight other senators from both factions have sent a letter to the above-mentioned governmental institution, "calling for an investigation into the disruption of the US-maintained Starshield systems for Ukrainian partners." The senators believe that the disruptions "put US diplomatic, military and security personnel in danger."
According to the senators, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General should "determine whether any US officials approved of or had advance knowledge of the disruptions in service" and inform them about the findings no later than November 1.
Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky called the shutdown of Starlink for Ukraine a mistake and asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to restore service. In turn, Sergey Beskrestnov, an advisor to Zelensky and an expert in communications and unmanned systems, reported that SpaceX had limited the operating speed of Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military to 160 kilometers per hour. According to him, this "disrupted a number of operations."
The RBC-Ukraine news agency reported on October 15, citing sources, SpaceX’s military and intelligence satellite program Starshield that uses Starlink infrastructure, has fully resumed operations in Ukraine.