Sikorski accuses Musk of playing politics over Starlink in Ukraine

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has publicly rebuked Elon Musk after Ukraine reported restrictions on the Starlink satellite internet service that affected combat operations. “Hey Elon Musk, big man, are you playing politics through your products again? We European customers are watching you,” Sikorski wrote on X, tagging Musk.

The trigger was a statement by Ukrainian officials that SpaceX had restricted Starlink in the country. According to Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, satellite connectivity dropped out once terminals passed a certain speed.

“I confirm that overnight SpaceX introduced a speed limit on Starlink terminals in motion,” Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram on Wednesday. “Our defense forces were not notified in advance, which led to a number of missions being disrupted. It is obvious that this cannot be a coincidence and is connected with the current political situation.”

It helps against drones

Ukraine’s 7th Air Assault Corps, operating in the southeast of the country, told Reuters it had to cancel some operations because of the restrictions. “By our observations, during flights the connection could drop for 10–20 seconds at a speed of just 110–120 km/h. The drones kept flying, but they became harder to control,” the corps said. Starlink normally works at speeds above 160 kilometers per hour.

In another post, Beskrestnov added that the restriction affected not only fighting and logistics at the front but also creates another serious problem for Ukraine: Starlink is currently the most effective way to protect the country’s airspace from Shahed-type drones. “By their actions, our partners are effectively taking away one of the few chances we have to defend the country from these drones,” he said.

Musk is silent for now

SpaceX and Musk himself have not commented on the situation so far. However, over the weekend Musk wrote on X that “Zelensky has gone too far.” He was reacting to a video in which US President Donald Trump said the Ukrainian president needed to stop striking Russian oil refineries.

After Trump announced an energy truce between Russia and Ukraine without first discussing it with either Moscow or Kyiv, Ukraine stopped striking refineries. Russia, on the contrary, stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, primarily in Kyiv. Neither Trump nor Musk has commented on this.

Poland is involved in the Starlink story because it is Poland that pays for the terminals’ operation in Ukraine. This is not the first time the Polish minister has addressed Musk as “big man”: he wrote the same way in early January, urging that Russians not be allowed to use Starlink in battles against Ukraine. Musk responded then with an insult, calling Sikorski a “drooling idiot.” Sikorski took the “big man” phrase from Musk’s reply last year, in which Musk called him a “small man.”

Besides Starlink, Ukraine’s access to intelligence is also limited. Zelensky has said for two days in a row that the country lacked the necessary data during Russian strikes. Cutting off intelligence is exactly what the US threatened Ukraine with if it did not stop hitting Russian refineries. According to Trump, intelligence is still being supplied.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz