Starlink throttling coincided with deadly Kharkiv drone strike
Photos show Ukraine's Starlink connection was reduced to 0.1 Mbps on Oct. 19, limiting air-defense radar communications during a Russian drone attack that killed five people in Kharkiv.
Ukraine's Starlink service was throttled to 0.1 megabytes per second on Oct. 19, the day a Russian Geran-4 drone struck a park in Kharkiv, killing a makeup artist, Yulia Spichak, her son’s sister Alina, and three others, including a one-year-old child. Ukrainian officials said the reduced bandwidth hampered ground-based air-defense radars and drone-interceptor systems, limiting the military’s ability to detect and respond to incoming strikes.
"It's an essential part of the air defense infrastructure," Vadym Ivchenko, a member of Ukraine's parliament on the National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, told CBS News. "I couldn't say that all other air defenses stopped working, no. But this part is quite essential for the defense of civilians in Ukraine."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X that the throttling was a response to Ukraine's alleged violation of Starlink's terms of service by using the civilian network for offensive drone operations. "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote.
Ukrainian officials confirmed that Starlink connectivity was restored later in the week, while also reporting issues with Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade network that shares the same satellite constellation. Musk said any changes to Starshield were directed by the U.S. government. The White House referred reporters to President Donald J. Trump’s earlier statement that he did not order the Starlink restrictions.
Alina Spichak, the sister of the deceased makeup artist, revisited the park with CBS News and described the sudden arrival of the drone. She urged global attention to the conflict, saying, "I believe that the whole world has to know what is happening in Ukraine, that there is a war here and we are being attacked. I really hope that it will end soon."