Restrictions on Starlink services used by Ukraine’s military this week left soldiers fighting blind on the front lines and air defence gunners unable to defend cities, amid growing concern that new US policies are handing advantages to Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky felt “betrayed” by Donald Trump in some of his sharpest criticisms of the US President to date, warning the move would cause “human losses”.
Sudden limits on the critical communication service owned by Elon Musk that were reported on Wednesday led to the cancellation of offensive operations, interrupted logistics on the battlefield and harmed Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian drones, said Serhiy Beskrestnov, a senior adviser to Zelensky.
Musk said the US military was responsible for the decision as it controls Starshield, the military version of Starlink.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko warned that “Russia will try to exploit every gap”.
“Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink is close to total,” he told The i Paper. “It’s not just internet at the front. It’s how our units communicate, how we fly interceptor drones against Shahed [drones], how we guide long-range drones against Russian logistics, and how we get supplies to frontline positions.”
The restrictions follow a series of US moves that have prompted anger and disillusionment in Ukraine. Zelensky said on Wednesday that Washington had not provided warnings of Russian air strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv that killed six. Trump denied suspending intelligence sharing – which the US did last year – and White House officials pointed to bad weather as the reason no warning was provided.
Starlink services were restored on Thursday, the Ukrainian military reported. But the disruptions and threat of further disruptions of the vital service have raised alarms in Ukraine. Musk has previously curtailed use of his service, citing escalation fears, resulting in disruption of Ukrainian attacks.
Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst at the government-run National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, said Starlink interruptions could cause chaos at the front, since it was used for “coordination between different units” on land and in the air, and the “guidance of attack drones”.
“If Starlink is denied, it might have major negative effects,” he added.
Analysts and officials also point to the role Musk’s technology plays in guiding interceptors to take down Russian drones that are being fired in deadly barrages at Ukrainian cities. Zelensky adviser Beskrestnov said Starlink is vital to combat Moscow’s new generation of jet-powered Geran-5 drones that are evading less sophisticated defences.
A loss of Starlink capabilities would mark a further blow to Ukraine’s air defences at a time it is facing its harshest winter yet in the fifth year of war, as Russia’s escalates air assaults that are targeting critical infrastructure and causing record civilian casualties.
Kyiv is wrestling with a shortage of US Patriot missiles – the only interceptors capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
In another blow to Ukraine, Trump last week announced a controversial deal to buy Russian diesel, despite opposition from Republican allies. Zelensky described the deal as a “present” to Putin that would be used to fund the Russian war machine. Diesel prices have hit record levels in the US ahead of the midterm elections next month, in which the Republicans are at risk of losing both houses of Congress.
Reports on Thursday suggested the White House could go further in a warming of relations with Russia by unfreezing some of the tens of billions of pounds in Kremlin assets that are frozen in European banks in a bid to revive stalled peace talks.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz bluntly rejected the suggestion. “These are assets that are frozen in Europe and they should stay frozen in Europe. This is our matter, and we decide on it,” he said.
Trump has also resumed personal attacks on his Ukrainian counterpart, warning Zelensky against attacks on Russian energy facilities and calling for him to step down. “Time for Ukraine to get a new president,” he said last week. Musk echoed that demand with a post on X that stated: “time to go”.
— AviVector (@avivector) October 15, 2026
Satellite images of
Borisoglebsk Air Base as of October 15, 08:25 UTC
On the night of October 15, several Su-34 were destroyed at Borisoglebsk Air Base. pic.twitter.com/3ZNBWhU6UD
Zelensky responded by saying any Ukrainian leader would continue the fight against Russia, and that elections would be impossible under constant Russian fire. Kyiv announced a resumption of attacks on Russian fuel facilities after a short-lived energy ceasefire brokered by Trump collapsed.
Starlink is not operational in Russia, so restrictions have not affected Ukraine’s cross-border attacks. Kyiv claimed it destroyed six Su-34 fighter jets in a hit on an airfield in Russia’s southern Voronezh region on Thursday.
The latest crisis in US-Ukraine relations will have wider implications for relations between Europe and Washington, suggests Edward Hunter Christie, a former Nato official and managing director at the Economic Security Forum, a Finnish geo-economic advisory company.
“This will only accelerate Ukraine’s move towards being able to function without the US, and it will only accelerate European investments to no longer depend on American intelligence,” he said.
“Strategically, it’s very negative for the US, because every [US-allied] government is going to privately conclude: if the US can do that to Ukraine, maybe one day they will do it to us.”