Zelenskyy warns Starshield restrictions threaten Ukraine’s energy defenses ahead of winter

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Restrictions on Ukraine’s Starshield satellite communications system are hindering its ability to intercept Russian drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

He warned that limitations on the system, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX , could weaken defenses around Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months , when Moscow has repeatedly targeted the power grid .

Ukraine’s interceptor drones continue to lose contact with their operators when flying faster than 161 kph (100 mph) along the front line and over Russian-occupied territory, leaving them unable to catch Russian Shahed drones, Zelenskyy said.

“We are counting on these restrictions to be lifted,” he wrote on social media. “The protection of lives and Ukrainian energy infrastructure before winter depends on this. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the President’s Office have been instructed to work closely with the American side and SpaceX. It is important to be on the right side of history. We need to help Ukraine .”

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

Meanwhile, a Russian strike on Chornomorsk, a port city in Ukraine’s Odesa region , injured six people and damaged energy infrastructure, regional head Oleh Kiper said Sunday on Telegram.

The blast and falling debris also damaged a gas pipeline and nearby residential buildings, while two parked cars caught fire.

The strike hit a facility operated by DTEK Odesa Electric Networks, temporarily leaving about 41,000 customers without power, Kiper said.

Overnight Russian airstrikes on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured another six people, including a 2-year-old boy, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Sunday.

Russia launched more than 2,300 drones, 1,590 guided aerial bombs and 15 missiles of various types against Ukraine over the past week, Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian drone strikes damaged two electrical substations in Russia’s Rostov region, killing a chief engineer, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said Sunday.

Four people were injured when drone debris fell on their cars, Slyusar wrote on social media. A fifth person was wounded when debris struck a “production facility” in the village of Troitskoye, he said.

Ukrainian forces also targeted Russia’s Tatarstan region, officials said. Radmir Belyaev, mayor of Nizhnekamsk, the region’s third-largest city, said a “large-scale and prolonged attack” damaged its industrial zone.

Six people were injured, and heating and hot water supplies were disrupted in parts of the city, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 533 Ukrainian drones overnight across 13 Russian regions, the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, and the Black and Azov seas.

Associated Press writer Katie Marie Davies contributed from Manchester, England.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine