UK Defence Secretary Streeting says US assures Starlink service restored for Ukraine

Streeting, on his first Washington visit, said the US confirmed the satellite communications system for Kyiv is operational again.

By Felo News Desk · Published Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:34:22 GMT

UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth assured him that Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite communications system had been restored, after a recent unexplained interruption.

What happened

During a meeting in Washington, D.C., Streeting was told by Hegseth that the Starlink service used by Ukrainian forces was back up and running. Streeting said the cause of the outage remained unclear. The discussion took place on Thursday, following a day when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited London and criticised former US President Donald Trump for limiting the use of US‑made Starlink terminals.

What the reports add

Both Standard articles report that Streeting invoked St Francis of Assisi in his effort to ease tensions between Washington and Kyiv. They note that Streeting’s visit was his first as UK Defence Secretary and that he sought to strengthen ties strained by Trump’s stance on Kyiv and a widening US‑NATO rift. The pieces also record Streeting’s comment to the BBC that the service interruption’s cause was still unknown.

What was said

Streeting told the BBC, as reported by the Standard, “Unsurprisingly we did discuss Starlink. It’s not yet clear to us in the UK what happened, why the service interruption occurred. But I am reassured, and was reassured directly by Secretary Hegseth, that the service has been restored. And that is a demonstration, I think, of the importance of the US contribution on intelligence sharing.”

How it came about

Earlier this week, Felo News reported on US‑imposed speed caps on Starlink terminals that hampered Ukrainian drone operations (SpaceX speed caps on Starlink hinder Ukrainian drone operations, 14 Oct) and on President Zelensky’s claim that those caps crippled Ukraine’s drones (Zelenskyy says US‑imposed Starlink speed caps cripple Ukraine’s drones, 15 Oct). Streeting’s reassurance comes amid those ongoing concerns about Starlink’s reliability for Kyiv.

Key facts

UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Starlink service for Ukraine is restored. (standard.co.uk)
Streeting described the cause of the outage as unclear. (standard.co.uk)
The comments were made during Streeting's first Washington visit as Defence Secretary. (standard.co.uk)