Elon Musk has blamed Donald Trump for restrictions introduced on Starlink speed for members of the Ukrainian military.
The service provided by Musk’s company SpaceX provides broadband internet and has been used for government and military communications by Ukraine in the war against Russia.
The outage came amid Trump’s demands for Ukraine to completely halt long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Musk of “playing politics” on Wednesday but the tech billionaire has now denied he was involved in the decision.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and POTUS,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post by Ukraine’s foreign minister Mykhailo Fedorov saying that the technology was “critical” for the country.
“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
He had previously said that “no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals... We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
Musk later retweeted a post by another X user that said among other things: “SpaceX is a private company with zero obligation to help Ukraine, yet it stepped up when governments dragged their feet.”
The X owner captioned the repost: “True”.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he felt betrayed by the decision in an interview with Piers Morgan and that the shutdown meant “people would die” as a result.
Several combat missions failed on Tuesday evening as a result of the shutdown, an adviser on military technology to Zelensky told The Guardian.
A US official told Axios that the Trump administration was not involved in the Starlink limitations.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
“This is not the right side of history,” Zelensky said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Asked if he felt betrayed by decisions made over the last week, he said: “Really, yes.”
The outage came just as Ukraine was hit by ballistic missiles, despiteTrump’s insistence that there is an energy ceasefire in place between the countries.
Poland has said that it pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription, which is crucial for guiding long-range drone strikes that have severely disrupted Russian logistics.
“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Sikorski wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”
The restriction came amid Trump’s decision to lift sanctions against Russia and allow global diesel exports, with the US to buy 300,000 tons of the fuel.
He faced criticism from several corners including from the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who told Washington that “Russia has started this war. We should not forget this.”
Sen. Roger Marshall sought funding to address a water shortage. The project could benefit his ranch
UK will ‘make case’ for US to continue backing Ukraine amid strained relations
Ukraine war live: Zelensky says Kyiv will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries
Britain pledges £17m to repair Chernobyl power plant hit by Russian drone strike
Elon Musk has just shown why Trump and the US are now the enemy within
Zelensky says Trump is on the wrong side of history with Russia diesel deal
