Elon Musk accuses Ukraine of having violated Starlink’s conditions of use, after several days of restricting its speed amid tensions with Washington. “Starlink’s terms of use have remained consistent: it is a civilian system, not a means of killing. Any violation of these conditions will result in termination of service,” the SpaceX boss wrote in a message on X on Saturday.
The world’s richest man added that Starlink remains “crucial to Ukraine’s defense” because it is the only system that cannot be jammed or destroyed, at least for now. If Starlink were to be disabled, the Ukrainian front line would immediately collapse,” he stressed in another message.
Although Elon Musk has repeatedly changed his position on Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, he has always maintained that any malfunction is the responsibility of the US government, not his company SpaceX. kyiv depends on the Starlink civilian satellite communications system as well as its military-grade version, Starshield, in its efforts to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevgeny Khmara indicated on Saturday that the connection of the Starlink system was once again “stable”, the speed of Starlink/Starshield being greater than 400 km/h. “This result is above all important for our front, for our military, for the operation of drones, for logistics and for communications,” he added.
Ukrainian president accuses Washington
Ukraine has been complaining for several days about a speed limit on Starlink terminals beyond 160 km/h. Concretely, this means that Ukrainian military aircraft, particularly aerial drones, lose their connection if they exceed this speed. Volodymyr Zelensky had accused Washington of being at the origin of these limitations, and of not having warned kyiv on several occasions of the arrival of Russian missiles before they struck.
The White House and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX manages Starlink, had each denied being behind the restrictions on this satellite system. On Friday, Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk had “relaunched” the Starlink network for Ukraine. These limitations began after a peak in tensions between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, who exchanged strong criticism through the media.
