UK's Streeting says he and Hegseth welcomed Starlink restoration in Ukraine - Reuters

Britain’s defence secretary Wes Streeting and his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth said they welcomed the restoration of the Starlink satellite service in Ukraine during a meeting on Thursday. The two officials discussed the issue in a joint appearance on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” after their bilateral talks.

Both ministers noted that the service had been reinstated but did not elaborate on the cause of the earlier interruption. When asked whether the Pentagon had limited Ukraine’s offensive and defensive capabilities to prevent strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, Streeting said that was not his understanding and that the conversation had not covered the reasons for the outage.

Streeting added that he would not speculate on why the service had been disrupted. The brief comment reflected a focus on the restoration rather than the underlying factors that led to the temporary loss of connectivity.

Ukraine has claimed that SpaceX, the operator of Starlink, restricted the service on Wednesday, which it said hampered the country’s attack and air‑defence drone operations. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has responded that the speed of the system was being controlled by the U.S. government, though he did not provide further details.

The ministers’ statements underscore the importance both governments place on maintaining satellite communications for Ukraine’s defence, while leaving the specific reasons for the recent service interruption unresolved.