Luke Harding in Kyiv; photographs and video by Alessio Mamo, The Guardian ; Russia strikes hospital in central Kyiv after SpaceX system falters again
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says speed restrictions on Starshield system made it harder for Ukraine to shoot down drones
"Russia has attacked a hospital in the centre of Kyiv, close to several western embassies, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy said speed restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield system had made it harder for Ukraine to shoot down enemy drones.
Three people were injured when a drone smashed into the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at 3am, hitting the second floor of the hospital and an adjoining 19th-century building.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed it had shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of the largest swarms sent by Kyiv. It reported that at least four people were killed in the southern region of Volgograd...
Russia has recently stepped up its strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, hitting power plants, passenger trains and two bridges across the Dnipro river. Ukraine says the attacks are part of a campaign of terror, designed to make a weary population capitulate.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy said the Starshield system – operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and overseen by the Pentagon – was again experiencing significant disruptions, after an unexplained slowdown last month.
He said some Russian aerial sorties had got through because Ukrainian interceptor systems that rely on the US satellite service could not reach the necessary speed to knock out enemy drones. Starshield is the Ukrainian military’s version of Starlink."
