Zelenskyy says Ukraine's military Starlink access not yet fully restored

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday that the Ukrainian military's access to the Starlink satellite internet service had not yet been fully restored, after media reports suggested the order to slow it came from inside the White House.

He was speaking in Brussels after meeting European leaders, where he asked the EU for another €70bn next year to fund Ukraine's defence against Russia.

Starlink speeds still reduced

Zelenskyy said Starshield, the military version of the satellite network, had not returned to normal. "Our defence ministry is in touch and my partners, they told me that there were signals from the White House that they would return these capabilities," he said. "Have they returned to the previous speed limits? No. But is it coming back now? Yes."

He called the reduced speeds a "very dangerous and unpleasant surprise", noting that Ukraine uses Starlink to support its most effective air defence systems against Russian jet-powered drones. Starlink is produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX but controlled by the US government.

Reuters reported on Friday that the order to throttle Starshield came from inside the White House, citing two US officials and a western official briefed on the matter. They did not identify the official involved, but said the Pentagon had been informed that SpaceX's Starshield service for the Ukrainian military had to be slowed. Trump's administration is also suspected of withholding intelligence from Ukraine on incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes, and of throttling Starshield to prevent it being used on drones flying above 100mph. Neither has been officially confirmed.

€70bn request in Brussels

Zelenskyy was applauded by the heads of state and government of the bloc's 27 countries as he arrived for talks. He told leaders the war would cost €155bn in 2027 and that at least €70bn more was needed "for defence, for weapons, and for our resilience".

The EU is currently making regular payments from a €90bn funding plan agreed last December, intended to cover two-thirds of Kyiv's civilian and military needs for 2026-27, with the rest to come from partners such as the UK, Canada, Norway and Japan.

Frozen Russian assets back on the table

Renewed financial pressure has revived debate over Russia's €210bn in assets frozen inside the EU. The bloc uses the profits from those assets to support Ukraine, but last year decided against using the funds themselves, opting instead for an EU-backed €90bn loan. Belgium, which hosts the vast majority of the money, remains strongly opposed, fearing it would be left to carry the financial burden if the plan goes wrong.

Zelenskyy suggested an alternative, calling for "something like a special EU-controlled custodian" to reduce the risk of the assets being unfrozen and divided up. The European Commission has been reluctant to propose new variants because it fears the same opposition from Belgium and other sceptical member states.

Trump criticises refinery strikes

Hours before the Brussels meeting, Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries "a disgrace" and criticised Zelenskyy after a purported "energy ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold. "All he's doing is making the world oil price higher," Trump told the Newsmax television channel. "Well, I think that's a disgrace."

Energy analysts told the BBC that the US-Israeli war on Iran was having the biggest impact on diesel export volumes, although the Ukraine war was also significant. Asked about reports that European leaders had urged him to dial down his criticism of Trump, Zelenskyy said he had heard "only support".

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU had supported Trump's energy ceasefire, "but we have seen that Russia did not respect it, not a single minute", and had instead escalated its attacks. She promised a 22nd round of sanctions and said: "We will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war."

Belgium's prime minister, Bart De Wever, said before the summit that Zelenskyy would "probably look everybody straight in the eye and say: thank you for the €90bn, but that money is going to run out because a war is a very costly thing".

Source: The Guardian World.