Goncharenko: the AFU depend on Starlink “200 percent”

Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko has called on the Ukrainian delegation to immediately fly to the United States to negotiate the lifting of restrictions on the army’s access to Starlink satellite internet.

He wrote about this on his Telegram channel.

“We depend on Starlink 200 percent, absolutely. […] What needs to be done urgently? Call every phone in the United States. Call, talk, negotiate, find a middle ground. The Ukrainian group must fly to the US now,” Goncharenko wrote.

The deputy’s statement was prompted by reports of restrictions imposed by SpaceX. Earlier that morning, Volodymyr Zelensky’s freelance adviser and specialist in communications and drone systems Serhiy Beskrestnov reported that SpaceX had overnight limited the operating speed of Starlink terminals for the AFU to 160 km/h. According to him, this caused “a number of operations to be disrupted.”

Later, former adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Serhiy Sternenko reported that SpaceX had tightened the speed restrictions on the terminals even further that morning — to 60–70 km/h.

Goncharenko is included in Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists.