image source, Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a crucial US satellite internet service continues to operate at insufficient speed, which is affecting the Ukrainian military's ability to counter Russian attacks.
"We are counting on these restrictions to be lifted. The protection of lives and Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the face of winter directly depends on it," he declared.
The controversy over the speed of Starshield, the military version of Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, and supplied to Ukraine by the United States government, has been generating controversy for weeks.
Zelensky said he had requested collaboration "to the greatest extent possible" from both the US government and Musk's company.
"It's important to be on the right side of history," he declared.
Ukraine uses the Starlink service for battlefield communications, while Starshield is used for interception of missiles and drones in Ukrainian airspace.
The issue of speed restrictions was first identified in October, leading to conflicting accounts from Musk and US President Donald Trump.
Musk claimed that the US government was responsible, since Starshield was under its control. However, Trump denied any blame and said he had told the billionaire owner to "give it back."
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A week later, the situation seemed to return to normal, but then Ukraine declared that restrictions were still in place.
The connection problems coincided with a tense diplomatic standoff between Zelensky and Trump in the wake of the Ukrainian offensive against oil infrastructure inside Russia.
Trump claimed that the attacks on oil refineries, which Kyiv says are crucial to curbing the main source of revenue for Moscow's war effort, had caused global prices to rise.
On Sunday, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine was having difficulty intercepting Russian jet-powered drones attacking electrical substations because "there are still restrictions on the speed of operation of Starshield terminals along the front line and in the temporarily occupied territories."
"Our interceptor drones lose connection with their operators at a speed of 161 km/h and simply cannot reach the Russian reactor-powered shaheds," he posted, referring to the drones that follow an Iranian design.
image copyrightAlfons Cabrera/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ukraine has also been affected by a shortage of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, used to defend against Russian rockets, a situation that Moscow has taken advantage of to intensify attacks against Ukrainian targets.
Ukraine reported that Russia attacked its energy infrastructure in the Zaporizhzhia and Sumy, Odessa, Zhytomyr and Kirovohrad regions overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning.
It also hit railway infrastructure in the Dnipro, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions.
Reports claim that dozens of people were injured in those attacks, as well as two in the Donetsk and Kyiv regions.
Two people were killed in an attack on an infrastructure facility in Mena, Chernihiv region, Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said.
Multiple attacks were also recorded against energy facilities throughout the region, the official added on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Ukraine announced that it had carried out attacks against a petrochemical plant and an oil refinery in the central Russian city of Nizhnekamsk.
"On the night of November 15, units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces arrived in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan," the army reported on Telegram.
"Two companies that supply raw materials and fuel to the Russian war were attacked."
Other Ukrainian attacks left one person dead in Taganrog, an industrial port city near the border, Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
A truck driver and an elderly woman were also killed in the occupied Luhansk region, according to Leonid Pasechnik, the regional leader imposed by Moscow.
image copyrightCarl Court/Getty Images
Estonia closes its border with Russia
Meanwhile, Estonia has announced that it will close its border crossings with Russia from December 1 following an alleged sabotage attack on a defense company.
Eight people were arrested for an attempted arson attack against drone manufacturer Threod Systems.
Estonian authorities claim to have received orders from the Russian military intelligence service GRU to attempt to carry out the attack. Russia has not commented on the matter.
"Russia must understand that hostile actions against Estonia have consequences," declared Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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