Musk: Ukrainian military violated Starlink terms of use, loophole closed
SpaceX owner Elon Musk claims Ukrainian forces used Starlink for offensive drone strikes and that this loophole was closed last week. He also says Ukraine's front would collapse instantly without Starlink.
American billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk has commented on the recent restrictions affecting Starlink satellite communications in Ukraine. Writing on the social network X, he alleged that Ukrainian troops breached the service's terms of use, while stressing that Starlink remains critical to the country's defence against Russia's full-scale invasion.
Musk's statement
Musk wrote that Starlink, a civilian commercial service, was never permitted to be used for offensive drone strikes intended to kill people. According to him, Ukraine's military did exactly that, and this "loophole" was closed last week. Starshield, he said, is a different system controlled by the US government, and what it decides to do is up to it.
At the same time, Musk said Starlink is the only system that cannot be jammed or destroyed, at least for now. In his view, if Starlink were switched off, the Ukrainian front would collapse instantly, which he described as a statement of fact rather than a threat. He also argued that Starlink was decisive in preventing Russia from occupying Ukraine in the early stage of the war, as all other means of communication had been destroyed or jammed by Russia.
Musk added that SpaceX has done far more to defend Ukraine than any other private company on Earth. He also voiced strong disgust toward those who, in his words, pose as virtuous while urging endless slaughter and offering no realistic solution to the conflict.
Background
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that restrictions on Starlink and Starshield were lifted on the morning of 24 October, and thanked everyone who helped restore communications. Days earlier he had said that at various sections of the front, Starlink and Starshield equipment stops working at speeds of 130–161 kilometres per hour, which hampers logistics and limits the use of Ukrainian drones.
On 16 October, US President Donald Trump stated that the White House had not been involved in restricting Ukraine's use of the system. The Telegraph, meanwhile, reported that Musk proposed to Trump limiting the bandwidth of the Starlink and Starshield networks used by Ukrainian forces.
