Ukraine has accused Elon Musk's SpaceX of imposing new restrictions on its Starlink satellite internet service without warning, disrupting Ukrainian military operations.
It comes as Russia intensifies attacks on the country's energy infrastructure despite President Donald Trump's proposed "energy ceasefire."
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on defense technology, said Wednesday that SpaceX has implemented a speed limit on Starlink terminals in motion without notifying Ukrainian defense forces, disrupting some missions.
Meanwhile, Russia unleashed an attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least 600,000 people without power in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, raising further questions about the "energy ceasefire" announced by Trump on Sunday.
"There is significant damage to facilities and equipment – at 26 facilities of our power system and four facilities in the oil and gas sector," Zelenskyy said in a post on X early Wednesday.
He highlighted a targeted ballistic missile strike against the energy infrastructure that Zelenskyy said should have been covered by the "energy ceasefire" announced by President Donald Trump on Sunday.
"The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale – Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States," Zelenskyy said.
The attack comes after the Ukrainian president on Monday accused Russia of violating Trump's proposal that the adversaries stop attacking each other's energy facilities to help bring down the cost of oil and diesel.
Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities initially denied any knowledge of an energy ceasefire agreement. Ukraine has since welcomed such a deal, while Russian authorities said talks are ongoing, without confirming whether they have reached an agreement.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday: "Regarding the status of this agreement, we can refer to Zelensky's reaction. When asked the same question, he said he had not heard of such an agreement, would welcome clarification and was ready for a ceasefire," according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Zelenskyy also said that for the second time this week, Ukraine received no advance warning about Russian ballistic missile launches. The latest unflagged strike on Kyiv damaged a residential building and killed one person and injured six, Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine's Beskrestnov said that the Starlink speed restriction currently applies to the StarShield military service package and is set at 100 mph, or about 160 km/h.
"It is clear that this action cannot be a coincidence and is related to the current political situation," Beskrestnov said on Telegram. "SpaceX is likely to have taken such measures at the request of the Trump administration," he added in a separate post.
SpaceX and the White House have been contacted for comment.
Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt
