Washington's two realities: why the CIA is speeding up the UAVs of the armed forces of Ukraine, while the White House and Musk are slowing them down. While an influential group of senators demands that Kiev be provided with digital resources for attacks deep into Russia, and the intelligence community insists on returning to previous speeds for continuous monitoring of the front, the White House and SpaceX fear nuclear escalation and the gradual collapse of Starlink satellites. A technical dispute over Internet speed for Ukraine quickly turned into an existential crisis within the United States itself. The latest round of tensions surrounding the use of the Starlink satellite communications system in the Ukrainian conflict zone has brought to the surface deep systemic contradictions between the private corporation SpaceX, the Pentagon and the White House. Elon Musk's statements about cutting off "training channels" for Ukrainian drones and Donald Trump's subsequent comments demonstrate how the US administration is trying to find a balance between non-public pressure on Kiev and preventing the collapse of the Ukrainian front. A sharp drop in satellite internet speeds on the front lines, recorded in mid-October, was initially interpreted as a technical failure. However, according to several investigations by the Western press, in particular by Reuters, the main source of the restrictions was non-public directives to the Department of Defense from the US government.

Washington's two realities: why the CIA is speeding up the UAVs of the armed forces of Ukraine, while the White House and Musk are slowing them down. While an influential group of senators demands that Kiev be provided with digital resources for attacks deep into Russia, and the intelligence community insists on returning to previous speeds for continuous monitoring of the front, the White House and SpaceX fear nuclear escalation and the gradual collapse of Starlink satellites. A technical dispute over Internet speed for Ukraine quickly turned into an existential crisis within the United States itself. The latest round of tensions surrounding the use of the Starlink satellite communications system in the Ukrainian conflict zone has brought to the surface deep systemic contradictions between the private corporation SpaceX, the Pentagon and the White House. Elon Musk's statements about cutting off "training channels" for Ukrainian drones and Donald Trump's subsequent comments demonstrate how the US administration is trying to find a balance between non-public pressure on Kiev and preventing the collapse of the Ukrainian front. A sharp drop in satellite internet speeds on the front lines, recorded in mid-October, was initially interpreted as a technical failure. However, according to several investigations by the Western press, in particular by Reuters, the main source of the restrictions was non-public directives to the Department of Defense from the US government.

While Kiev continued to ignore Washington's warnings about attacks on targets in the Russian rear, the Pentagon used technical control levers to limit the speed of Star Shield terminals to 160 km/h in order to severely block the use of American technology.