Ukraine's access to the U.S. government's Starshield satellite network runs out in the middle of next year, and Kyiv says it has already started talks with Washington on what comes next. Denys Sienik, the chargé d'affaires at Ukraine's embassy in Washington, told reporters the clock is ticking on an agreement that Ukrainian forces have leaned on throughout the war, and he's pushing for a new deal with clear terms and funding attached before the current one lapses.
Sienik made the remarks while speaking to the Defense Writers Group in Washington, according to a report from Miami Herald. “it would be in the middle of next year” is when the current contract expires, he said, and he framed the timing as reason enough to move now rather than wait. As Breaking Defense reported, Sienik said Ukraine is “in the process of starting” those negotiations with Washington, specifically with leaders inside the Pentagon, and that he hopes the outcome will be a signed contract with negotiated terms of reference and funding attached.
Still No Answers on October's Outage
Even as talks on a successor deal get underway, Ukraine says it's still waiting for Washington to explain what went wrong with Starshield in October. Sienik told the Defense Writers Group, per the same Breaking Defense report, that “we still don't have an answer from Pentagon and SpaceX about what has happened.” He did say the immediate problem has since been fixed, telling the group that “the good news is that it has been resolved, and our military can further do their work.”
The October episode involved speed restrictions on Starshield terminals that reportedly hampered Ukraine's ability to intercept Russian attack drones and forced the cancellation of some military operations, according to a Reuters account carried by investing.com. Exactly where that speed cutoff kicked in is disputed. CSIS reported that terminals traveling faster than 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, per hour lost connectivity under the restriction, while Ukrainian units reportedly saw link drops at speeds as low as 90 kilometers per hour. Ukraine's defense ministry said full Starshield access had been restored on October 24, but CNN also reported that a source in Ukraine's Donetsk region said speeds in that area remained capped at 160 kilometers per hour that same morning — leaving the scope of the fix unsettled even as Kyiv moves on to negotiating a replacement contract.
Intelligence Gaps and a Government-Controlled Network
Beyond the speed throttling, Ukraine said it also experienced gaps in getting intelligence from the U.S. on Russian missile attacks, according to the same investing.com report. The disruptions matter because SpaceX provides Starshield as a military service to the U.S. government, while Starlink is a commercial service offered globally. SpaceX is run by Elon Musk, who posted on X on October 24 that Starshield was controlled by the U.S. government — a point he made as questions swirled over who bore responsibility for the outage.
Zelenskiy's Mixed Message on Musk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has offered a notably two-sided view of the relationship. He said SpaceX connectivity “was very helpful at the beginning of the war,” per investing.com, and has expressed thanks to SpaceX for providing that connectivity. At the same time, Zelenskiy said Ukraine does not like Musk's position on the war, part of a broader string of frustrations that also included Zelenskiy's complaints about U.S. delays in resupplying Patriot and NASAMS missile systems and his criticism of Donald Trump's diesel deal with Russia. Trump, for his part, has criticized Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries.
Lawmakers Press for Answers, Pentagon Watchdog Steps Back
The October problems also drew attention on Capitol Hill. Democrats in Congress sent Musk a letter that month asking about the Starshield incident, and a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers separately urged the Pentagon to expand the Starshield contract and restore service without speed restrictions, according to Yahoo News. Those lawmakers also pressed the Defense Department to ensure that any transition from commercial Starlink service to the government-run Starshield program happens without interruption, the outlet reported.
Despite that bipartisan push, the Pentagon's inspector general's office declined a request for a formal inquiry into the disruptions, according to Ars Technica, saying the Air Force and Space Force were better suited to address the matters raised and to coordinate any departmental response. Separately, a letter to Department of Defense Inspector General Platte Moring, signed by Senator Thom Tillis, shows lawmakers had called for an inspector general investigation into the incidents, including whether decisions by the Defense Department or its contractors contributed to what happened. Senior U.S. lawmakers have also promised to investigate U.S. aid to Ukraine more broadly, per investing.com, with Republicans having lost control of Congress this month.
Scale of the Network and What Comes Next
The scale of what's at stake has grown over time. A Pentagon contract described by Bloomberg Government would extend Starshield access to 2,500 Starlink terminals already in Ukraine, on top of 500 terminals previously connected, and a statement to Bloomberg News put the combined total at 3,000 terminals served across the two contracts. The Space Systems Command similarly said the two contracts together served 3,000 terminals, according to The Business Times.
Sienik said Ukraine is not waiting entirely on Washington to sort out what comes after the current contract expires. He told the Defense Writers Group that Ukraine is working on its own domestic satellite capabilities while European countries pursue a system of their own, per Breaking Defense — a hedge against any gap if a new Starshield agreement isn't in place when the current one runs out next year. For now, Sienik's message is that Ukraine wants clarity on whether it can proceed and what the terms of reference will be, and that the time to begin negotiating is now.
