Starlink access for Ukraine limited after Trump’s claims satellite service restored, officials say – Europe live

A war of words has erupted between the Trump administration, officials in Kyiv and Elon Musk over who is to blame for limiting Ukraine’s access to Space X’s military-grade version of Starlink. The restrictions to Starshield have rendered many of the drones used by Kyiv to strike behind the frontlines inoperable and hampered air defence systems that stop Russian attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.

The US president said on Thursday that the service was running again at full speed, but a European official speaking to the Associated Press denied the service was fully functioning. What has Trump said?

Trump initially denied any responsibility for the changes to Starshield, telling reporters last Friday: “I don’t know if it was anybody, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” referring to Musk, SpaceX’s CEO. Trump’s cabinet backed him up, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday: “What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States nor any

Good morning and welcome to our Europe live blog, where we’ll begin in Ukraine. Local authorities reported explosions overnight in Lutsk, a city not far from the Polish border, and in the central Poltava and southern Sumy regions. Russia this morning has also claimed strikes on ships in the Black Sea.

Both sides engaged in heavy strikes yesterday with Russia bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles and Ukraine sending swarms of drones to Moscow. Trump has declared that Starlink is once again running at full speed across Ukraine after the service was throttled last week -but Ukrainian and European officials say they haven’t seen that speed and functionality resume.

The satellite service was still only operating at a cap of 161km/hr, crippling key air defences and limiting mid-range strikes, a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent after Trump’s comments. “Overall, nothing has changed anywhere,” the paper quoted the unnamed official saying. Elsewhere we’re watching this continued wa

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