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Donald Trump has claimed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fully restored Ukraine’s Starlink access, restrictions on which have hampered Ukraine’s attack missions and air defence. However, a senior European official told the Associated Press on Thursday that nothing has changed in the operation of the military-grade Starshield service. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of the system. Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm that the service had been down, but claimed it was once again working at optimal speeds. “You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”
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Questions over who ordered interruptions to Starshield – which plunged relations between Kyiv and Washington to a new low – have ignited a blame game within the Trump administration and its allies. Trump has denied being involved in the decision concerning the slowdown, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that decisions regarding Ukraine’s access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and Musk, not the White House. Musk last week posted to X: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday – before Trump’s latest comments – that Starlink had not been fully restored.
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Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles overnight, after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin to discuss the resumption of peace talks. Russia’s aerial attacks hit 12 regions of Ukraine, killing at least four people and wounding scores of others, including five children, Zelenskyy said on social media Thursday. Two women, aged 50 and 60, were killed and dozens of other people were wounded in a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, in Ukraine’s northeeastern Kharkiv region, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. Another person was killed in other strikes on Kharkiv.
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Downing Street has rejected the description of Putin as a “humanitarian” made by Witkoff after meeting the Russian president. When asked about the US envoy’s comments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We certainly do not recognise that characterisation, and President Putin has killed thousands of people, both innocent Ukrainians and his own Russian people, who he has sent to their deaths on the frontline.” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha chided Witkoff for flattering Putin, saying on social media the latest “brutal” Russian attacks demonstrate “what Russian ‘humanism’ truly sounds like.”
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Nato member Denmark said on Thursday it has agreed to buy its first long-range precision missiles as it seeks to bolster its security to deter Russian aggression in Europe, drawing condemnation from Moscow. Defence minister Jeppe Bruus said the new missile systems would boost Denmark’s capabilities and enable strikes “behind enemy lines” if attacked. “We’re in a serious and deteriorating security situation and that is why we are building up the defence and strengthening our combat power,” he said. The Russian embassy in Copenhagen said Denmark’s missile policy aimed at confrontation with Moscow and warned of “inevitable disastrous consequences”.
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Romania will accelerate development of surveillance capabilities and equipment to counter mines and drones in the Black Sea after a series of drone attacks on commercial ships off its coast, its top defence council said on Thursday. At least seven cargo ships have been hit near the coasts of Nato members Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, with 30 sailors reported dead or missing.
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No deals should be made to buy gas from Russia as long as Moscow’s war in Ukraine continues, Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo said in Kyiv on Thursday. The EU banned Russian pipeline gas under short-term contracts from 17 June, and will apply it to long-term contracts from 1 November next year. Senior Russian political and energy officials meanwhile have urged the EU to reconsider plans to ban imports of Russian LNG, arguing the bloc’s low storage levels had put Europe in a precarious position. “I hope there is still time to reconsider these decisions,” Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Novatek, Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer, told an economic forum in Istanbul on Thursday. “Europe should support its industry, in my view. There is still time.”
