Elon Musk says SpaceX did restrict Starlink service in Ukraine, reversing his earlier denial that the connection had been deliberately throttled. He made the comments on Saturday as Ukrainian officials said the connectivity problems appeared to be fixed, the BBC reports.
What Musk said
Writing on X, Musk said Ukraine’s military had violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the civilian service for offensive drone strikes, and that the “loophole was closed last week.” In a later post he said Starlink can be used for military infrastructure but not for “unequivocally offensive strikes.” He also said Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade counterpart, is controlled by the US government and denied that SpaceX was responsible for a problem with that system at the same time.
Musk didn’t explain why the change came last week, given that Ukraine’s heavy use of Starlink has been known for years.
Kyiv’s response
Ukraine’s defence minister, Yevhenii Khmara, said the military was now recording a “stable connection,” with drones able to exceed 400 km/h. Kyiv had previously said the connection cut out above 161 km/h. President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote that “the speeds are now where they need to be.” Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov called Musk’s post “very strange,” saying drones using Starlink in Ukraine already had speed limits and didn’t work over Russian territory, so commercial Starlink couldn’t be used for deep strikes.
Ukraine said the slowdown had hampered its defensive operations for more than a week. The restoration followed President Donald Trump saying he had told Musk to “put it back,” though Trump has repeatedly denied ordering the restriction in the first place. We covered Zelensky’s complaints about the speed limits earlier this month.
Source: BBC News.