KYIV, Ukraine — The internet is back, said the White House. The internet is not back, said Ukraine, and both statements are now true in the way that only a support ticket can make them true.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News on Friday that the Starlink network — the satellite constellation that Ukrainian drones, field hospitals, and much of the country’s civilian internet run on — was still not fully working, despite assurances from President Donald Trump that the caps had been lifted. “The restrictions on Starlink and Starshield,” Zelenskyy posted, “are still there. The speed has not been restored.”
UKRAINE'S INTERNET: SERVICE HISTORY
- Early October: Speed limits appear on Starlink, and on Starshield, its military version.
- Oct. 16: Zelenskyy says the slowdown is deliberate — a "message" from Washington.
- Oct. 18: U.S. intelligence sharing resumes; Zelenskyy publicly thanks Trump.
- Oct. 22: Trump says the limits are lifted. The Wall Street Journal reports he has told the system's owner he is frustrated the speeds are still capped.
- Oct. 23: "The speed has not been restored."
- Outstanding: Callback promised within 48 hours, from the Secretary of State.
“He promised to get back to me with information within 48 hours or so,” Zelenskyy said, which is phrasing reserved for the most senior office in the free world, and it means roughly what it means on a cable company’s ticket.
The queue is long and the priority levels are classified. A drone operator outside Chasiv Yar, who asks to be identified as Printer, because that is what his screen keeps showing, described the new normal.
A Ukrainian digital-ministry official confirmed the country’s support ticket is now in its fourth week, that the ticket number is a large round number, and that the priority level is “being assessed.” The official, speaking on condition of staying employed, said the account had been moved to a new plan called Wartime Business but that nothing in the bill had changed except the mood.
Sympathy has crossed industries. In Tulsa, a plumber named Dale Reeves said he understood the strategic throttle completely. “They capped my upload last spring,” Reeves said. “You find out real quick who your country is.”
There is one genuine first in all of this. Since the caps appeared, the free world has collectively learned what every household already knows: the two great forces on earth are a superpower and an internet provider, and only one of them ever sends a technician.
At press time, a replacement router had arrived at a base outside Kyiv from a partner country whose name was not given out. Ukrainian officials were glad to have it, and cautious about asking whose plan it was on.