Ukraine's Starlink satellite speeds restored after a week of front-line disruption

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.

“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and were sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.

The restoration follows a new U.S. diplomatic push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Restrictions imposed last week on Starshield — SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication — alarmed the country’s military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions.

The episode added to tensions between Kyiv and Washington, a relationship already strained by President Donald Trump’s reported deal with Moscow on Russian diesel imports, which Ukraine viewed as a betrayal.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara credited “direct dialogue” and Zelenskyy’s diplomacy with Washington, adding that the outcome mattered most “for our front, for the military, the work of drones, logistics and communications.”

Zelenskyy on Friday said Ukraine was still experiencing Starlink and Starshield speed limits.

Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Elon Musk-made satellite internet system that Ukraine has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.

Trump has maintained that he didn’t make the call, while also saying Musk should not be blamed. Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have denied any administration involvement.

Meanwhile, a man was killed and two others wounded in a missile attack on the city of Lozova in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, local officials said Saturday.

Moscow-installed authorities in cities across Russia-occupied Crimea reported power blackouts Saturday following overnight Ukrainian attacks.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Saturday that its forces hit a chemical plant in the Russian city of Tolyatti, which produces materials used in rocket fuel. Tolyatti Mayor Ilya Sukhikh said the overnight attack damaged industrial facilities in the city.

Ukrainian forces also hit an electronics plant in the city of Oryol, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed Saturday. Local officials in Oryol said Saturday that three people were killed in Friday’s attack. The General Staff said the plant makes components for the cruise and ballistic missiles Russia fires at Ukrainian cities.

Morton reported from London.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers media questions before his meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

BERLIN (AP) — A fire swept through the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler and known as the Eagle's Nest as emergency services struggled to tackle the blaze in snow and wind, and a man was arrested on suspicion of arson, authorities said Saturday.

Emergency services in the Berchtesgaden district, in the Bavarian Alps in Germany's southeastern corner, were alerted to the fire by an alarm at about 9:15 p.m. Friday. Firefighters and police rushed to the scene — located at the end of a narrow road that winds up the mountain, in part through a series of tunnels — and could see the flames as they approached.

They stopped and arrested a man on a motorcycle driving the other way down the road.

Prosecutors said the 33-year-old suspect, a German citizen who has ties to the Berchtesgaden area but doesn't currently live there, was questioned. They said he showed signs of mental illness and he was being set to a psychiatric facility, but they also would look into the possibility of a political motive in view of the building's history. Police said there were no current indications that anyone else was involved.

Rain that turned into the season's first significant snow, accompanied by strong wind, complicated the already difficult task of tackling the blaze and firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours, officials said. No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters hoped to finish their work on Saturday though they weren't able to enter the building because of a danger of falling material.

The building, known in German as the Kehlsteinhaus, is located on a cliff 1,834 meters (6,017 feet) above sea level. It is reachable by an elevator built inside the rock from the end of the mountain road, which is closed to public traffic but used during the day by buses for visitors.

It has been operated as a cafe and restaurant since 1952 and contains an exhibition on its history. The Nazi dictator himself rarely used the Kehlsteinhaus — unlike the Berghof residence, also in the Berchtesgaden area, the ruins of which were blown up in 1952.

The Obersalzberg Documentation Center, further down the mountain, is home to the area's main historical exhibition and was unaffected by the fire.

Officials indicated that the Eagle's Nest would be restored, though they were vague so soon after the blaze about how exactly that would be done.

“We're not going to leave a ruin there,” Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told reporters in Berchtesgaden. But what the site will look like in the future will be a matter for discussions with local officials, historians, preservationists and others.

“I think we will be able to find a sensible solution,” Herrmann added. Bavaria's state government owns the building.

The minister stressed that “it is important that we continue to do the work of remembrance.”

The Kehlsteinhaus on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, which was severely damaged by a fire, Saturday, Oct.24, 2026. ( Jason Tschepljakow/dpa via AP)

The Kehlsteinhaus on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, which was severely damaged by a fire, Saturday, Oct.24, 2026. ( Jason Tschepljakow/dpa via AP)

This July 26, 2007 photo shows the Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle's Nest, built for Adolf Hitler in 1938 near Berchtesgaden, Germany. (AP Photo/Geir Moulson)