Zelenskiy says Russia's energy attacks helped by Starshield restrictions

Russia struck ‌energy and railway ​infrastructure in eight regions of Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on ‌Sunday, in attacks he said were made possible partly due to restrictions on Ukraine's use of SpaceX's Starshield service.

"The Russians ‌are targeting substations with 'shaheds,'" Zelenskiy said on X, referring ‌to the drones Russia commonly launches across Ukraine. "And many of these strikes are getting through because restrictions on the speed of Starshield terminals ⁠along ​the front ⁠line and in the temporarily occupied territories are still there." Speaking later ⁠in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had lately ​been singling out specific regions and then repeatedly striking ⁠them over several days. Zelenskiy said the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia ⁠regions ​had been particularly badly hit, with repair work proceeding on the grid and on specific substations.

"There have ⁠been many outages, and restoration is proceeding," Zelenskiy said. "Power has been ⁠restored ⁠to some extent, but there is still a lot of work ahead."