Kallas says Europe cannot quickly replace Starlink for Ukraine

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at a summit in Brussels on Friday that Starlink was essential for Ukraine and that Europe could not provide the same capability in the short term. Her warning came after Ukrainian officials reported restrictions affecting Starshield, a military service that uses SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network. [1] [2] [5]

Ukrainian officials said the restrictions had interfered with drones that rely on the service. By Thursday, receivers were working again while in motion, but only at speeds of up to 160 km/h, a person at Ukraine’s defence ministry told Reuters. That figure describes how fast the equipment could travel while maintaining a connection, not the speed of the internet service. The account does not establish what restrictions remained on Friday. [5]

Who directed the limits remains disputed. Reuters reported, citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, that the order came from inside the White House. A senior US official told Bloomberg that President Donald Trump had made no such request; that denial does not rule out a decision by someone else. Bloomberg also reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that SpaceX had limited terminal connections. [5] [6]

Kallas described cooperation with US allies as very difficult at the moment. Her assessment of Europe’s short-term options was not an announcement of a replacement service: the European Commission said on Wednesday that it was discussing access to its GOVSATCOM system with Ukraine, with commercial capacity planned for early 2027 and the longer-term IRIS² system envisaged towards 2029. The Commission did not present those plans as a direct replacement for Starshield. [4] [3]