Poland has called out SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk for restricting access to Starlink satellite terminals across Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers have had their access to the internet restricted amid Donald Trump’s demands for a halt to long-range strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, according to reports.
The service provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX provides broadband internet and has been used for government and military communications in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”
Several combat missions failed on Tuesday evening as a result of the shutdown, an adviser on military technology to Zelensky told The Guardian.
The outage came just as Ukraine was hit by ballistic missiles without any warning from the US for a second night, despite Donald Trump’s insistence that there is an energy ceasefire in place between the countries.
The dig referred back to a comment Musk made to Sikorski in 2025, during a spat between the foreign minister, Musk and US secretary of state Marco Rubio when he said: “Be quiet, small man.”
Coincidentally, the dispute at the time was around the use of Starlink when Musk bragged that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it (Starlink) off”.
At the time, he had also said “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.”
Poland has said that it pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription, which is crucial for guiding long-range drone strikes in occupied southern and eastern Ukraine. The attacks have severely disrupted Russian logistics.
Starlink has also grown significantly in Iran since its introduction to the country in 2022. There are believed to be around 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran, but experts believe the total is “much higher” – some estimates put it at more than 100,000.
It comes amid reports in The Telegraph that the United States had promised Ukraine extra post-war security guarantees in any deal between it and Russia before talks fell apart after Trump announced his diesel deal with Vladimir Putin.
The “upgraded” guarantees were not specified in detail but the offer was reported to go further than the provision of jets to patrol Ukrainian skies and satellite intelligence support that was initially proposed.
The agreement allows Moscow to supply diesel to global markets, with Donald Trump saying that the US would import 300,000 tons of the fuel.
He faced criticism from leaders, including the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who told Washington that “Russia has started this war. We should not forget this.”
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