Ukraine has been relying on Musk’s Starlink in its fight against Russian forces, but that access was partially cut off recently.
The Ukrainian military just regained access to Elon Musk’s Starlink after a period of slowdown. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian government said its missions were disrupted after the military abruptly lost access to some Starlink services, particularly impacting Starshield, the company’s military-grade version of the service. Ukraine mainly relies on Starshield to intercept Russian Shahed drones, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, while also relying on Starlink for drone operations and battlefield communications. Starshield is also used for offensive military purposes, per Axios.
But Musk took to his X account over the weekend to dispute that characterization, claiming that Starlink was being used in “offensive drone strikes to kill people.”
“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote.
Ukrainian officials have reportedly disputed that characterization, with former Ukrainian advisor Serhii Sternenko claiming that “using civilian Starlink for drone missions was technically impossible.”
“For any satellite terminal to work while on the move, it had to be added to a special list and connected to the military Starshield system,” Sternenko wrote. “Otherwise, no satellite communication terminals in Ukraine would work.”
Meanwhile, a blame game over the limit reduction has been unfolding for the past few weeks. Some Ukrainian officials have reportedly blamed SpaceX for the slowdown. ” A Wall Street Journal report claimed that Musk gave the order to obstruct Ukrainian access to Starshield, while a Reuters report says the decision came from the White House.
Source link







