{"id":1458891,"date":"2026-10-29T09:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-pentagon-refused-to-investigate-starlink-outages-in-ukraine-what-happened\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:25:06","slug":"the-pentagon-refused-to-investigate-starlink-outages-in-ukraine-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-pentagon-refused-to-investigate-starlink-outages-in-ukraine-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon refused to investigate Starlink outages in Ukraine: what happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pentagon watchdog will not investigate restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine at the request of a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Instead, it has recommended that the matter be referred to the U.S. Air Force. The decision has raised concerns among lawmakers who have been pushing for an independent review of the circumstances surrounding the outages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was reported by<\/a> the Associated Press, citing sources and the response of the Pentagon’s inspector general.<\/p>\n

Nine senators \u2014 four Republicans and five Democrats \u2014 have filed a complaint with the watchdog after Ukrainian officials reported that they were throttling the speed of Starlink and the military’s Starshield satellite service, which is critical for keeping Ukrainian military and civilian communications safe during the war.<\/p>\n

According to the Ukrainian side, system limitations prevented the interception of Russian jet attack drones. At the same time, the administration of US President Donald Trump and the company SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, gave different explanations for the disruptions.<\/p>\n

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the watchdog’s decision.<\/p>\n

“It is concerning that the inspector general has apparently decided not to investigate incidents of disruptions in satellite communications that Ukraine relies on to protect its civilian population,” she said.<\/p>\n

Shaheen stressed that the conflicting explanations from the Trump administration and SpaceX require an independent investigation. According to her, the investigation should identify those responsible and help prevent similar situations in the future.<\/p>\n

An aide to a member of Congress, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, viewed the inspector general’s response as a de facto refusal to investigate the actions of Musk and his company, even though there was appropriate authority to do so.<\/p>\n

Molly Halpern, a spokeswoman for the Office of Inspector General, said the agency carefully considered the lawmakers’ request and concluded that the issues raised should be addressed by the Pentagon itself. However, she did not rule out reconsidering the decision.<\/p>\n

“If new information comes to light, we may reconsider our decision,” Halpern added.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon referred AP’s request to the Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Both agencies have previously declined to answer questions about Ukraine’s restrictions on satellite internet.<\/p>\n

As the AP notes, the situation has once again raised the question of the influence of Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, on the communications system that is critical for Ukraine’s defense. Concerns among American lawmakers about Musk’s control over Starlink have existed for several years. According to the agency’s interlocutor, they were one of the reasons for the creation of the military version of the system – Starshield.<\/p>\n

It was previously reported that US Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into Ukraine’s loss of access to the Starshield military satellite system<\/a> used by the Pentagon. He wants to find out who made the decision to limit the service and whether the US Department of Defense has alternatives in case SpaceX services become unavailable.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that the day before, US President Donald Trump said that SpaceX founder Elon Musk had restored access to the Starlink satellite system for Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

As is known, US Republican Senator Tom Tillis is demanding an investigation into the problems with the Starshield military satellite communications system, which caused the Ukrainian military to face limitations in the system’s operation<\/a> . He plans to ask the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense to conduct an inspection and report to Congress and the American public.<\/p>\n

Recall that on the night of Wednesday, October 14, Starlink terminals began to lose communication while traveling at speeds over 160 km\/h<\/a> . This, according to preliminary data, disrupted a number of important missions. At the same time, conventional satellite communication terminals continue to operate.<\/p>\n

Later, Serhiy Beskrestnov, known by the call sign \u201cFlash\u201d, stated that SpaceX had introduced speed restrictions on Starlink terminals during movement<\/a> . Because of this, the Ukrainian Defense Forces were unable to complete a number of important missions.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the 7th Airborne Assault Corps reported that problems arose even at lower speeds. In particular, in the Hulyaipil direction , communication with drones could be lost for 10\u201320 seconds while flying at a speed of 110\u2013120 km\/h.<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported in the evening of the same day , Ukraine began to resume Starlink operations at speeds of up to 160 km\/h<\/a> . Thanks to this, the Ukrainian military will again be able to use strike drones and interceptor drones, the work of which was complicated by recent restrictions.<\/p>\n

By the way, the administration of US President Donald Trump denies involvement in the restrictions on Starlink operations in Ukraine<\/a> . Washington said it would contact SpaceX to find out the causes of the problems.<\/p>\n

In addition, Starlink antennas may have been set on fire in Bulgaria at a secret facility near Sofia. According to preliminary data, the fire damaged 11 of the 17 SpaceX antennas, and two masked men may have been involved in the incident<\/a> .<\/p>\n

As of the morning of October 24, the Defense Forces and specialists of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine recorded the operation of Starlink\/Starshield at a speed of over 400 km\/h<\/a> . The department also confirmed the stability of the connection.<\/p>\n

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the Ukrainian military violated the terms of use of the Starlink satellite network by using it for drone strikes<\/a> . According to him, the company eliminated the possibility of such use of the network last week.<\/p>\n

American billionaire Elon Musk has again criticized Ukraine for using Starlink satellite communications for military operations and called for sympathy for the Russian military.<\/a> He stated that the deaths of Ukrainians and Russians must stop, and Russian conscripts allegedly have no choice but to fight.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Pentagon watchdog will not investigate restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine at the request of a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Instead, it has recommended that the matter be referred to the U.S. Air Force. The decision has raised concerns among lawmakers who have been pushing for an independent review of the circumstances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1239044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1458891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1239044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}