Elon Musk and Donald Trump in a Tesla outside the White House, March 11, 2025 (Sky)
EA on DW News and Talk TV: How Kremlin Manipulated Trump and His Envoy Witkoff
Thursday’s Coverage: Kremlin Rejects Trump Envoy Witkoff’s Proposals
UPDATE 0604 GMT:
Ukraine and Finland have signed seven agreements, worth €330 million (more than $336 million) for Kyiv’s energy infrastructure and greater access to Finnish satellite networks.
The deals were announced during Thursday’s visit of Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to Kyiv.
Today, we continue our cooperation with Finland – and very substantively. We are working comprehensively with the Government of Finland – with Prime Minister @PetteriOrpo. Thank you for this cooperation and for this level of relations between our countries. We have a new support package for Ukraine from Finland – and, in addition, agreements that expand our opportunities for cooperation. Seven documents have been signed – the total value of today’s agreements is €300 million.
We agreed to make greater use of Finland’s satellite capabilities – this is important for our defense and Ukraine’s resilience. We reached agreements on this with Nokia and ICEYE. Thank you for your readiness to support our logistics and energy sector – these are Russia’s key targets right now. And having more locomotives, more energy equipment, and more funding to protect energy infrastructure will really help.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 22, 2026
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s officials say Starshield, the military service of Starlink, is still being restricted with a speed cap of 161 km (100 miles) per hour.
The Wall Street Journal had reported on Thursday that SpaceX’s Starshield, limited since October 14, had been restored following a phone call between Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
On Tuesday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with US Secretary on State Marco Rubio about the restoration to 400 km (248 miles) per hour. Zelensky said on Thursday that he was still waiting for Rubio’s confirmation.
Ukrainian official said the Wall Street Journal report is “all false”: “Overall, nothing has changed anywhere.” The speed cap is severely limiting key military operations, including mid-range strikes and high-speed drone interceptions.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that Starlink was operating normally. He refused to comment on reports, from US officials, that he spoke with Musk both before and after the revelation last week of Starshield’s restriction.
“Yeah, I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called, or whether somebody else called, it doesn’t make a difference. The bottom line, [Musk] put it back,” he said.
The Ukrainian official said:
Maybe something will become clear by morning.
For now, the main interesting aspect of this is that there are absolutely no explanations for what’s happening. Even though this is a top-priority system.
