Ukraine's contract with the US government for access to the Starshield satellite network expires in the middle of next year, and Kyiv is urgently seeking to start talks on a new one, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters via SRN News
Denys Sienik, the charge d'affaires at Ukraine's embassy in Washington, told the Defense Writers Group in Washington that negotiating a replacement will take time. "The contract expires next year for Starshield. And we understand that it requires time to negotiate a new one," he said, adding, "now is actually the time."
"We want to have a clarity, basically, if we can proceed and what the terms of reference will be," Sienik said. He did not give the exact month of expiry, saying only that it falls in the middle of next year.
Why Starshield matters on the battlefield
Starshield is the military satellite service provided to the US government by SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk; its separate Starlink service is the commercial offering sold around the world. Ukrainian commanders rely on the network for the communications that help them detect and intercept Russian attack drones.
That role came into sharp focus last month, when Ukrainian battlefield commanders saw speed limitations suddenly imposed on the service, hampering the military's ability to intercept Russian attack drones and forcing the cancellation of some operations, Reuters reported.
Sienik said Kyiv never received an explanation of what happened — not from Washington and not from SpaceX. Ukraine sought answers at the Pentagon, the White House and SpaceX, he said: "Nobody provided answers."
A strained stretch in US-Ukraine ties
The Starshield access issue is one of a series of recent developments that have alarmed Kyiv as it defends against the Russian forces that invaded in February 2022. In recent weeks Ukraine has said it experienced gaps in receiving US intelligence on Russian missile attacks, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has complained about US delays in resupplying Patriot and NASAMS air-defence systems, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy has also criticised President Donald Trump's diesel deal with Russia, while Trump has criticised Zelenskiy over Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries, which pushed up energy prices ahead of midterm elections in which Trump's Republicans lost control of the US Congress.
In Washington, a group of prominent Democrats in Congress wrote to Musk about the Starshield incident last month, and senior lawmakers have promised to investigate US aid to Ukraine more broadly. Musk, in an October 24 post on X, said Starshield is controlled by the US government, defended SpaceX's role in helping defend Ukraine, and condemned what he called "virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter."
Zelenskiy, speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday, thanked SpaceX for the connectivity that "was very helpful at the beginning of the war", but added of Musk: "we certainly do not like his position on this war."
Awaaz Punjab reported last month on the Starshield speed restrictions and the claims that full speed had been restored for Ukrainian units. Read our earlier Starshield report
What happens next: Kyiv wants contract talks opened now, months before the mid-2027 expiry, so there is no gap in a service its drone defences depend on. No US response to Sienik's remarks had been reported by Friday morning, and the separate question of what caused October's speed limits remains officially unanswered.