Volodymyr Zelensky says he was betrayed by Donald Trump and asks for Starlink back
The network that guides Ukrainian drones stopped transmitting on the move overnight on October 13 to 14, 2026, without warning, and SpaceX blamed the US government, which Kyiv accuses of siding with Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky said he felt betrayed, asked for the service back, and summed up the toll in one sentence: it is a pity to be losing a strong partner.
The restriction began without warning, overnight on October 13—14, 2026 in Ukraine — the afternoon of October 13, Brasília time. The Starlink terminals that Ukrainian forces use on the move stopped transmitting data above roughly 160 km/h, and the cutoff reached Starshield, the military package of the same network. The Associated Press described the immediate effect: Ukrainian drones lost speed, and the attack models, already slower, became easier to shoot down. “Our armed forces received no warning about these restrictions, and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” wrote Serhiy Beskrestnov, Zelensky’s adviser on military technology. “It is clear that this action cannot be a coincidence and is tied to the current political situation.”
What the speed limit interrupted had a precise address. Sources at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, interviewed by the French news agency France-Presse, said the constellation cuts the link between satellite and antenna when the antenna exceeds 160 km/h, which compromises “drone missions, particularly interceptor and medium-range strike missions,” in addition to reducing frontline logistics, reconnaissance and communications relay capacity. The same report spoke to a European industry source, for whom Starlink is “extremely effective” against radar targets and antiaircraft systems, because the control comes from space and dispenses with the range limits of terrestrial signals.
“I’m sure they knew what they were doing, absolutely. Because it was 1 a.m., and Starlink was blocked by SpaceX and by the United States.”
The reach of the measure
The reach of the restriction says more than the official explanation. The cutoff hit the interception of jet-powered Shahed drones — “the most effective current solution” in Ukrainian air defense, in Beskrestnov’s words — whose shoot-down rate had already fallen from more than 90% to around 60% when Russia swapped the drones’ engines in early summer. It did not touch, however, the target Donald Trump wants to preserve: Ukrainian attacks on refineries inside Russia continue by other means, because Kyiv is barred from using Starlink to strike targets on Russian territory, as The Guardian reported. That same day, in London, Zelensky answered yes when asked whether he felt betrayed. “Really, yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than just my emotions or my feelings,” he said. “It is a pity that we are losing — we are losing a strong partner.”
The attack on the previous night measures the cost. As The Guardian reported, Russia launched 39 ballistic missiles and 120 attack drones against Kyiv and Kharkiv, hit five large power plants, substations and other infrastructure, and left more than 600,000 people without electricity — a figure Zelensky himself released. The toll in Kyiv stood at three dead, two of them in a building in the Desnianskyi district and one in the Holosiivskyi district, and the country counted at least nine dead in all, with three in Lutsk, in the west, according to Al Jazeera. In the opposite direction, authorities in Russia’s Saratov region said a Ukrainian drone killed one person in Balakovo, a city that hosts a Sberbank data center and a hydroelectric plant on the Volga River; Moscow claimed to have shot down 902 Ukrainian drones during the night.
The warning that never came
The first wave of ballistic missiles, on the night of October 13, 2026, came with no advance alert, said Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force; for the three following barrages the country was warned by “foreign partners,” according to The Guardian. Trump had denied, the day before, having cut intelligence sharing. Zelensky told National Public Radio (NPR), the United States’ public radio, that military advisers had heard threats that this cooperation could be limited.
Who answers for the switch
Elon Musk denied the decision was his: Starshield “is owned and controlled by the US government,” and speed and usage limits are set by the US armed forces and, “ultimately, by the president,” according to the French news agency France-Presse. The US armed forces and the Space Force did not respond to press questions, and the White House did not comment.
A senior Ukrainian official, speaking without being identified, was more direct to the same outlet: “it’s obvious they are helping Russia for some reason.” At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “too early to draw systemic conclusions” about a shift in US support, and Vladimir Putin’s envoy for economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said the first contracts for the sale of Russian diesel to the United States would be signed in the coming days.
The customer who complains
Poland, which says it pays for Ukraine’s subscription to the service, was the first European government to raise its voice. “Hey, Elon Musk, big guy, you’re playing politics with your products again? We, your European customers, are watching you,” wrote Chancellor Radosław Sikorski, as reported by the Kyiv Post. The episode echoes the clash of March 2025, when Sikorski cited the roughly US$50 million a year Poland spent on the service and heard Musk’s advice to “be quiet, little man,” after which the entrepreneur promised that Starlink would never switch off the Ukrainian terminals.
The next day
By end of day, part of the service was back. “Starlink operation at speeds of up to 160 km/h is being restored. Attack drones and interceptor drones should be able to fly again. Now we need to work to remove the speed limits on Starshield entirely,” wrote Mykhailo Fedorov, a former defense minister, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The military package had no speed limit before that night; the partial restoration still leaves Starshield below what existed before the restriction, and it is that gap Ukraine is now negotiating. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it was in contact with the United States, SpaceX and allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), gathering data from the units and setting up alternative communication channels, according to the same Ukrainska Pravda. Zelensky summed up the state of the relationship the same day: the country had “some difficulties with Starlink and with intelligence,” but “we count on the partnership with the United States — we just want to be very honest, very clear, strong partners”.
The night of October 13—14 showed that Ukraine does not need a change of side in Washington to lose part of the defense of its cities. It took only a speed limit applied without warning to the network that guides its drones — and returned in part the same day — for the country to measure how much of its war effort runs through a switch that is not in its hands. Zelensky asked for the service back in public and recovered part of what he already had; the rest remains under negotiation across the Atlantic, with those who decide. That is the bill for a partnership in which one of the sides is a client.