Marta Gichko13:28, 23.10.26

3 min.173

Ukrainian drones continue to lose contact at speeds over 160 km/h, although Trump said that Elon Musk has restored Starlink.

As of Friday morning, October 23, speed limitations on Starshield, a military service based on Starlink , continued to affect the operation of Ukrainian drones. As a result, the interceptors cannot fully perform their tasks of destroying Russian strike drones, Politico reports , citing Ukrainian officials and the drone operator.

“Morning tests show that the speed limit of 140–160 km/h is still in effect, and the navigation is not working properly,” a Ukrainian government official told the publication on condition of anonymity.

A representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also confirmed that communication problems remain.

“As of this morning, cases of loss of communication at a speed of 161 km/h are still observed. There is currently no confirmation that the restriction has been lifted,” he said.

The Ukrainian military began testing the drones after Trump told reporters on Thursday that Musk had restarted Starlink. During some tests over the Black Sea, the drones reached speeds of up to 200 km/h, and the quality of communication improved. However, at speeds above 160 km/h, the drones still lost their signal.

The pilot of one of the leading Ukrainian drone units, “Birds of the Magyar”, with the call sign Leon, said that communication is lost after several minutes of flight at a speed of over 180 km/h. When the drone slows down to 140–150 km/h, the signal is restored.

“So it works better, but with constant interruptions in communication,” the operator noted.

(C)UNIAN 2026