Starlink Outages in Ukraine Spark Call to Strip Musk of Control

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says control of Starlink should be taken away from Elon Musk, arguing that a private individual should not be able to shape a country's security. According to India Today, he made the case in a Substack post after reports of Starlink disruptions that hampered Ukraine's military.

The dispute puts a question in front of governments and the public: what happens when a front-line military depends on a network that a single company, and its owner, controls?

What set off the argument

Krugman's post responded to a Wall Street Journal report about Musk's alleged role in Starlink disruptions in Ukraine, India Today reported. Musk has since acknowledged restricting the service there. Ukraine says it uses Starlink for defensive purposes, and that recent disruptions hurt its defensive operations for more than a week.

The Atlantic reported that a confidential memo went to Ukrainian military officers on Oct. 11, telling them to prepare for a possible loss of Starlink access. Service problems began two days later, according to the magazine, grounding drones and halting operations in parts of the war zone. The Atlantic also cited two people familiar with a mission in which Ukrainian naval drones were lost in the Black Sea.

Krugman's case: a military asset needs public control

Krugman, according to India Today, calls Starlink a crucial military asset. He argues that decisions about who can use it are foreign policy and national security matters that belong to governments, not business owners.

To make the point, he compares Starlink with weapons from defense contractors. He asks readers to imagine Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-16 jets Taiwan uses, abruptly cutting off spare parts, upgrades and support, perhaps as part of a deal with China. In his view, the U.S. government would not treat that as an ordinary business choice and would be expected to step in.

He concludes that control of Starlink must be taken from Musk "one way or another." His post also uses harsh personal language about Musk, which this article does not repeat.

Musk's response: the service was misused

Musk defended the restrictions in an Oct. 25 post on X. He said using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes that kill people has never been allowed. According to India Today, he also separated Starlink from Starshield, a SpaceX service built for military customers. He said the U.S. government controls Starshield and decides how it is used.

Musk also acknowledged how much Ukraine relies on the network. He wrote that "the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately" if Starlink were switched off, calling that a statement of fact rather than a threat. He described Starlink as the only system that cannot be jammed or destroyed, at least for now.

Ukraine rejects the claim of offensive use, saying it has used the service defensively.

How Starlink became central to the war

After Russia invaded in 2022, missile strikes and cyberattacks damaged Ukraine's digital infrastructure. Musk donated thousands of Starlink antennas to hospitals, power plants, government offices and humanitarian groups, India Today reported. The Ukrainian military soon used the network to fly drones and keep communications running.

Russian forces do not have access to Starlink and cannot easily jam its signals, which gave Ukraine an edge. India Today also reported that Russia is building its own rival to Starshield. A senior U.S. military officer told The Atlantic, "Without Starlink, the war would grind to a halt."

What's at stake beyond one company

The dispute is less about consumers than about dependence. Krugman argues that Ukraine's biggest technological advantage could also be its biggest weakness, because a private company's decisions can directly affect its ability to fight. Musk's own warning about a front-line collapse points to the same reliance.

The two sides disagree about the remedy and the rules. Krugman wants control moved away from Musk and treated as a government matter. Musk says the issue is compliance with the terms of a civilian service and points to Starshield as the government-controlled option. The sources do not describe any official U.S. action in response to Krugman's call, and his argument remains an opinion, not a policy proposal under consideration.

Around Prague, based on reporting by India Today