Elon Musk says SpaceX closed Ukraine Starlink ‘loophole,’ while Kyiv denies breaching terms

Elon Musk has said his company imposed limits on the use of its Starlink satellite system in Ukraine last week, after curbs led to disruption to Ukrainian military operations. Ukraine said Saturday that both Starlink, run by Musk’s SpaceX, and its military variant Starshield were now fully functional after the long outage, two days after President Donald Trump indicated Musk had been asked to “put it back.” In a series of posts on X on Saturday night into Sunday morning, Musk accused Ukraine of violating “Starlink terms of service” by using it for offensive drone strikes. “That loophole was closed last week,” the billionaire wrote. “Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” he added. In a separate post, he said: “We simply enforced our terms of service when they were bypassed.” SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Musk nor the United States government ​had initially taken responsibility for imposing the curbs last week, with Musk saying previously with respect to Starshield that “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” Starlink technology is critical to front-line communications as well as Ukraine’s drone operations and its ability to intercept jet-powered drones launched by Russia. Ukrainian officials said the restrictions were imposed without warning and capped Starshield operations at speeds of 100 mph, hampering the military’s ability to intercept drones and forcing the cancellation of some operations. “Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now,” Musk said. “Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact.” In a series of posts and replies, he called his critics “bloodthirsty warmongers” who “want the war to continue until every last man in Ukraine has died in a ditch.” Hours later, responding to an X user comment that said “Zelensky needs to go,” Musk responded: “Yes.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Starlink speeds started returning to normal on Saturday night. Ukraine’s defense ministry said Saturday that the connection remained stable at over 250 mph. The Ukrainian military does not disclose the systems’ maximum operating speeds. Russia has barraged Ukraine over the past week, Zelenskyy said on Sunday, though he did not draw any direct link to the limitations. “This past week alone, Russia has launched around 1,600 guided aerial bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, and nearly 2,300 attack drones against Ukraine. Unfortunately, almost every day, these brutal strikes leave people killed and injured,” he said in a post on X. The restrictions on Starlink services last week came amid a souring of relations between the White House and Ukraine, after President Donald Trump agreed to a diesel deal with Russia, waived sweeping sanctions and called for Ukraine to get a new president. The disruption to the service also coincided with what Ukrainian officials described as a temporary interruption to U.S. intelligence warnings about incoming Russian attacks. In a response to Musk on Sunday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said: “It’s very strange that Elon Musk doesn’t know about the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine.” “Starlink does not work over Russian territory,” he said in a post on Telegram. “So we PHYSICALLY CANNOT USE COMMERCIAL STARLINK for deep strikes and mid-range strikes.” Serhii Sternenko, a former drone adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry, said that using a civilian Starlink service for drone missions like Musk had described 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,” he posted on X. “All drone missions that required satellite communication could only be carried out using Starshield.” “We are very grateful to the United States and SpaceX for access to critically important satellite communications. Ukraine did not violate the terms of use,” he added. Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russia have continued over the past week despite the Starlink issues. Asked whether he thought Trump or Musk had directly made the decision to limit Starlink, Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” last week he did not know but thought “both” were involved. He said that if Trump decided tomorrow to lift the restriction, “it will immediately work as it was before.” Asked whether he spoke to Musk on Thursday, Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference, I guess. The bottom line — he put it back.” Amid the dispute, there have been signs that Ukraine is keen for more control over its communications. Last week, the country’s defense ministry announced a partnership with Nokia and Finnish satellite imagery firm ICEYE to develop a “sovereign satellite communications” system, with the two firms already working on building a Starlink-style satellite internet system “built on trusted European technology.” “Modern warfare has proven that reliable communications are a matter of national security,” Zelenskyy said of the deal at the time. “We must all rely on capabilities that we can control.” Musk’s ability to limit Starlink gives him “enormous leverage,” said Moritz Brake, a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, a Washington-based think tank. “This is indeed one of the reasons why the European Union is pursuing independent space infrastructure capabilities, military capabilities, communication capabilities,” he told NBC News. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced plans in 2025 to spend $39 billion on Germany’s defense space capabilities, but Brake said Europe still had plenty of ground to cover to match “the need for space assets in peace and war.” “This is something Ukraine is now experiencing on the sharp end,” Brake added. There have been concerns about potential interference with Ukraine’s Starlink connection before, with a September 2022 interruption occurring during a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia. A Reuters report in 2025 cited three sources who alleged that Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive, triggering a communication blackout and leaving long-range artillery units reliant on Starlink struggling to hit their targets. A SpaceX spokesperson called the news agency’s reporting “inaccurate.”