Ukraine probes Starlink curbs with US, NATO after Russian attack

Olesia Safronova and Daryna Krasnolutska, Bloomberg News on Oct 14, 2026

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Ukraine is seeking answers from the U.S. and NATO allies about a sudden restriction of SpaceX’s Starlink service for military use after a wave of Russian missile and drone attacks on energy plants.

SpaceX limited terminal connections that complicated Ukrainian drone interceptions and mid-range strikes, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Defense Ministry in Kyiv is in touch with U.S. and NATO partners as well as the company about the situation involving the Starshield network, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The restriction on use of Starshield appeared days after Starlink’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “has gone too far,” in a post on his X platform. That message was a response to a video of President Donald Trump calling for Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries.

Ukraine is critically dependent on U.S. intelligence assistance, including on early warning of Russian missile launches, that Kyiv’s European allies can’t easily replace. Tensions between the U.S. and Ukraine have increased since Trump announced last week that he’d reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply diesel to American and global markets to try to ease surging fuel prices ahead of vital midterm elections next month.

White House officials are actively discussing the idea of cutting intelligence sharing with Ukraine, though there’s no consensus on what to do, Semafor reported Wednesday, citing an administration official it didn’t identify. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. continues to share intelligence with Ukraine.

The U.S. temporarily halted intelligence-sharing to Kyiv last year after Zelenskyy and Trump clashed publicly in the Oval Office over their approaches to ending the war.

A military adviser to Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the Starshield restrictions affected frontline logistics and long-range missions, as well as Kyiv’s ability to intercept Russian jet-powered drones.

“Our defense forces received no warning about this,” Serhii Beskrestnov said on Facebook. “Through their actions, our partners are depriving us of one of the few options available to defend the country” against such attacks, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its “massive strike” overnight targeted six thermal plants and a substation supplying electricity in Kyiv and its surroundings as well as in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.

The attacks left large areas of Kyiv without power and water supplies, and further undermined Trump’s claim last week of an energy truce between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia targeted “the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American president,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the X platform. “The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale.”

The Ukrainian leader said he told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that there was “no advance warning from our partners” about the Russian ballistic missile launches for the second time this week. He didn’t elaborate on the failure.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy highlighted a lack of early warning for a “particularly vile” ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha later said that intelligence cooperation with the U.S. was continuing and that a delay in air raid alerts was due to “the special type of weaponry that was used by the Russian side.”

Zelenskyy has said his country hasn’t attacked Russian oil refineries since Trump declared there was a truce, while Putin hasn’t committed to any ceasefire.

“What is the perimeter of the energy ceasefire, and what does it mean? Was it specified?” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, in response to a question on the status of the truce. “Work in this direction is continuing.”

The Russian strikes involved 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones, Zelenskyy said.

Three municipal combined heat and power plants were attacked in Kyiv, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. At least five people were killed and 25 injured, according to the police.

—With assistance from Michelle Jamrisko.