Ukrainian officials have accused SpaceX of limiting Starlink satellite services, a move they say has weakened Kyiv’s military operations and left the capital more exposed to deadly attacks.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the service restrictions were imposed without notice overnight on Wednesday, affecting terminals travelling faster than 100mph. The adviser said this effectively reduced Ukraine’s ability to launch drones, which rely on satellite internet to be piloted.
Kyiv says military operations have been hit
Writing on Telegram, defence technology adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said Ukraine had been “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 slowdown came after Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv for a second night in a row, killing at least nine people and damaging electricity and heating infrastructure. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had not received its usual warnings from Western allies, without naming any partners.
Poland and the Musk-Sikorski exchange
The accusation drew a sharp response from Poland, which pays for Ukrainian Starlink subscriptions on Kyiv’s behalf. Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, asked Elon Musk whether he was playing politics with his products again, adding that European customers were watching.
His remark referred to a public clash on social media in 2025, when Musk told Sikorski to be quiet on the X platform. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also part of that dispute. Musk, a former senior adviser to US President Donald Trump and a major midterm donor to the Republican Party, had said Ukraine’s entire frontline could collapse if he switched off Starlink. He later insisted Starlink would never disable its terminals and would not use them as a bargaining chip.
Washington responds and diesel claims emerge
Trump said the United States had not stopped sharing intelligence. Beskrestnov warned the slowdown could not be a coincidence, pointing to a deal Trump struck with Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel despite international sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow.
Another Ukrainian official, speaking to a news agency, accused Washington of throttling Starlink and helping Russia. On Saturday, Trump suggested Zelenskyy had not done enough to end the war with Russia, blaming him for high diesel prices in the United States.
