SpaceX owner Elon Musk wrote in a post on X on Saturday that Ukraine had violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the satellite internet service for offensive drone attacks and said that the “loophole” allowing those attacks had been closed.
“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” Musk said, acknowledging he was behind the recent throttling of Ukraine’s Starlink service.
Musk said that the US military’s version of Starlink, known as Starshield, was controlled by the US and that “what they decide to do is up to them.” However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said Ukraine didn’t have access to Starshield, while noting that it had requested to use the service for long-range attacks inside Russia.
In his X post, Musk went on to detail how Starlink has aided the Ukrainian war effort. “Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact,” he wrote.
“Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia. SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR. That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell,” Musk added.
In a reply to his post, Musk noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “himself posted about using Starlink for offensive drone strikes, which has always been against Starlink’s terms of service.”
Zelensky said on Saturday that Starlink and Starshield speeds for Ukraine have been restored. “The speeds are now where they need to be. The restoration began overnight, and by this morning, speeds were already sufficient. This matters: for our frontline logistics, for defending Ukraine against jet-powered ‘shaheds,'” he said.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that President Trump called Musk and asked him to lift the Starlink restrictions, as it doesn’t appear the US president had imposed any consequences for continuing strikes on Russian oil refineries despite his stated opposition to the attacks, which are known to be supported by US intelligence.
