A dark grey pickup truck seen from behind at three-quarters, parked in a snowy field beside a line of spruce trees at dusk, a flat white rectangular satellite terminal mounted on its cab roof and tilted toward a pink and violet sky over distant wooded hills.

Ukraine

Zelensky Says Starshield Is Capped Again

Ukraine’s units have for several days found SpaceX’s Starshield capped at 161 kilometers an hour, President Zelensky said, making Russia’s jet drones harder to intercept.

KYIV, Ukraine, Nov. 12 — Ukrainian units have for several days recorded significant disruptions to SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service along the whole front line and over occupied territory, with its speed held to 161 kilometers an hour, or 100 miles an hour, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday. It is less than three weeks since Kyiv said an earlier cap had been lifted.

“These are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions,” he wrote on Telegram, in NBC News’s translation. “For us, this primarily means a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones.”

“Unfortunately, there have already been strikes that got through because our interception systems cannot reach sufficient speeds and are unable to intercept in time,” he wrote, in NBC’s rendering. The post, at 11:04 a.m. Kyiv time, 4:04 a.m. in New York, cited reports from the defense minister, Evgeniy Khmara, and the commander-in-chief, Mykhailo Drapatyi. Ukraine was trying to establish the circumstances with the American side, Mr. Zelensky said.StarshieldSpaceX’s military version of its Starlink service, as NBC News describes it. The cap limits how fast a terminal can travel and stay connected, not its data rate.

The speed is the point. During the October slowdown, Mr. Zelensky wrote on Oct. 19 that equipment stopped working at 130 to 161 kilometers an hour, limiting above all mid-range strike drones and the interceptors Ukraine sends after Russia’s jet-powered Shaheds. Kyiv said that cap had been lifted on Oct. 24, as this paper reported. Who imposed the October cap, and who has imposed this one, has not been settled in public.

Elon Musk, Starlink’s owner, put the responsibility for the earlier restrictions on President Trump, and the U.S. government said any such decision could only have been taken by Mr. Musk, NBC reported; Mr. Trump denied involvement. The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 20, citing unnamed U.S. officials and a person familiar with the matter, that Mr. Musk had ordered the October slowdown; some officials told the Journal he acted unilaterally, while the person said he had spoken to senior administration officials, including Mr. Trump, beforehand. Reuters had reported on Oct. 16, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official, that the order to limit Starshield “came from inside the White House”; a senior U.S. official told Reuters, “No such request was ever made by the president.” By 5:15 a.m. in New York, SpaceX, the Pentagon and the White House had made no public statement on Thursday’s claim in anything Daily Cortex found.

The night

Overnight, Russia sent 123 attack drones of several types, 73 of them jet-powered, with ballistic and Zircon missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said; it did not give the number of missiles. As of 8 a.m. Kyiv time it counted 89 drones downed or suppressed, 51 of them jets, plus five Banderol-type craft, with several drones still in the air. The 51 jets are 69.9 percent of those sent, by this paper’s arithmetic: the lowest of the six mornings since Saturday, Nov. 7, on the Air Force’s preliminary counts, taken at 8 a.m. Kyiv time except on Saturday (9 a.m.) and Tuesday (7:30 a.m.). The other five ran from 73 to 85 percent. Mr. Zelensky did not link the night to the cap.

In Kyiv, a drone set fire to the third to sixth floors of a nine-story apartment block in Solomianskyi district, the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said. A 44-year-old woman was killed, the city’s military administration said, and by 10:43 a.m. Kyiv time Mr. Klitschko counted seven injured. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed strikes on defense-industrial and energy sites and an ammunition depot in and around Kyiv, and said it had shot down 71 Ukrainian drones overnight. Neither claim could be checked.

Talks in Abu Dhabi ended on Wednesday after less than two hours with no breakthrough, CNN reported; Mr. Zelensky said a prisoner exchange had been agreed. “Steve and I are going to travel to Moscow tomorrow to meet with President Putin,” Jared Kushner said there, of himself and Steve Witkoff, as quoted by CNN; NBC reported the envoys were in Moscow on Thursday.

The nearest test is in Washington: Senator Richard Blumenthal had asked SpaceX officials with direct knowledge of the October restriction to brief a Senate investigations subcommittee no later than Thursday.

Sources

  1. Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram, “Були доповіді міністра оборони України Євгенія Хмари та Головнокомандувача ЗСУ Михайла Драпатого… (Post 21792, on Starshield),” Nov. 12, 2026.
  2. NBC News, “Ukraine says Starshield is being limited again, hampering its defenses against Russia,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  3. Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram, “Був також окремий звіт Головнокомандувача ЗСУ… (Post 21435, on Starlink and Starshield speeds),” Oct. 19, 2026.
  4. Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram, “Post 21519, on Starlink and Starshield speeds restored,” Oct. 24, 2026.
  5. Reuters, via Military Times, “Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say,” Oct. 16, 2026.
  6. The Wall Street Journal, via To Vima, “Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine,” Oct. 20, 2026.
  7. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, “Blumenthal Announces Congressional Inquiry into Starlink & Starshield,” Oct. 22, 2026.
  8. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “ЗБИТО/ПОДАВЛЕНО 94 ВОРОЖІ ЦІЛІ (94 enemy targets downed or suppressed),” Nov. 12, 2026.
  9. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “Morning summary of the night’s attack, as of 9 a.m. (Post 93936),” Nov. 7, 2026.
  10. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “Morning summary of the night’s attack (Post 94139),” Nov. 8, 2026.
  11. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “Morning summary of the night’s attack (Post 94425),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  12. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “Morning summary of the night’s attack, as of 7:30 a.m. (Post 94783),” Nov. 10, 2026.
  13. Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram, “Morning summary of the night’s attack (Post 95044),” Nov. 11, 2026.
  14. Kyiv City Military Administration, on Telegram, “Post 22607, on the woman killed in Solomianskyi district,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  15. Vitali Klitschko, on Telegram, “Post 8105, on the drone hit and fire in Solomianskyi district,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  16. Vitali Klitschko, on Telegram, “Post 8109, on the injured,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  17. Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on Telegram, “Post 68948, claims of a strike on Ukraine,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  18. Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on Telegram, “Post 68950, further claims of the strike’s targets,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  19. Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on Telegram, “Post 68949, claims of 71 drones intercepted overnight,” Nov. 12, 2026.
  20. CNN, “Trump envoys to meet Putin in Moscow after latest Ukraine talks end with no breakthrough,” Nov. 11, 2026.
  21. Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram, “Зустрівся із Президентом Литви Гітанасом Наусєдою… (Post 21791, on the prisoner exchange),” Nov. 11, 2026.