Dalton Daily

KYIV — Ukraine said its Starlink and Starshield links returned to normal speeds after more than a week of disruption on the front. On Saturday SpaceX chief Elon Musk wrote that the civilian service was never allowed for offensive drone strikes and that a loophole had been closed last week. He also said the front line would collapse if Starlink were switched off entirely, and that decisions on Starshield rest with the U.S. government. President Zelensky said the restored bandwidth quickly helped logistics and counter-drone work. Crisis Group's mid-October briefing links the episode to Washington's 'energy ceasefire' announcement, which Zelensky said he learned of through social media. It reports that the U.S. pressed Kyiv to stop striking Russian refineries or risk losing intelligence sharing. Washington says sharing continues. Zelensky has since announced that refinery attacks will resume, and Ukrainian long-range strikes continued this weekend, including on Belgorod.