World

Zelenskiy calls on US to end Starshield restrictions

By AAP Newswire

Nov 16, 2026

Ukraine depends on the US Starshield satellite system, President Volodymyr Zelensky says. -AP

Russia has struck ‌energy and railway infrastructure in eight regions of Ukraine ‌overnight, in attacks President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says were made possible partly due to restrictions on Ukraine's use of SpaceX's Starshield service.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

"The Russians are targeting substations with 'shaheds,'" Zelenskiy said on ‌X, referring ‌to ⁠the drones Russia commonly launches across Ukraine.

"And many of these strikes are getting through because restrictions on the speed of Starshield terminals along the front line and in the temporarily occupied territories are ⁠still there."

Zelenskiy questioned whether the problem was technical, saying the restrictions appeared to have been imposed by SpaceX, despite earlier assurances from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Starshield was more under US government control.

Speaking ‌later in his Sunday night video address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had lately ‌been singling out specific regions and then repeatedly striking them over several days.

Zelenskiy said the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions had been particularly badly hit, with repair work proceeding on ‌the grid and on specific substations.

"There have been many outages, and restoration is proceeding," Zelenskiy said.

"Power has been restored to some extent, but there is still a lot of work ahead."