U.S. senators are calling for an investigation into the Starshield outage, which reportedly affected Ukraine’s defense against Russian drones

A bipartisan group of seven U.S. senators has asked the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, Platte B. Moring III, to investigate the interruption of Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military version of the Starlink network. The senators contend that the incident affected the ability of Ukrainian forces to detect and intercept Russian drones and may have endangered U.S. personnel in the region.

The request was made in a letter led by Senators Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, the co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group. They are asking for a determination of whether decisions by the Department of Defense or its contractors contributed to the service interruption and whether contractual provisions concerning communications continuity were violated.

Tillis stated that the problem may have arisen in the Starshield systems administered by the Pentagon, rather than at SpaceX or in the commercial Starlink network. He described the situation as, at best, an unacceptable error or negligence, and at worst, a deliberate decision that would have favored a Russian attack.

The senator said he does not expect transparency from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and will request an independent investigation. According to the lawmakers, some services are provided through contracts managed by the U.S. Space Force.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the loss of access a major mistake, expressing hope that the restrictions were caused by a technical problem. Several lawmakers, including Richard Blumenthal and Don Bacon, have called for the Trump administration and Elon Musk to be held accountable.