Ukrainian officials have accused SpaceX of throttling Starlink satellite services, disrupting its ability to carry out military operations and leaving Kyiv vulnerable to deadly attacks.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that without warning, services had been limited for terminals travelling over 100mph overnight on Wednesday – effectively limiting Ukraine’s ability to launch drones, which use satellite internet to pilot the craft.
Writing on Telegram, defence technology adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said Ukraine was “deprived of one of the few chances to defend itself from Shahed drones”.
He added that frontline logistics and long-distance missions were also disrupted.
The suggestion that Elon Musk’s company had throttled Starlink services drew the ire of Poland, which pays for Ukrainian Starlink subscriptions on Kyiv’s behalf.
“Hey Elon Musk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” wrote Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”
The “big man” jibe refers to a public dispute on social media between Musk, Sikorski and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025, when the SpaceX boss told Sikorski to “be quiet, small man” on his X platform.
The clash broke out when Musk, the trillionaire former senior adviser to US President Donald Trump and key midterm election donor for his Republican Party, said that Ukraine’s “entire frontline could collapse” if he switched off Starlink.
Credit: aljazeera.com
