Ukraine rejects Musk's claim that Starlink terms barred drone strikes

Ukrainian officials pushed back on Elon Musk's accusation that Kyiv broke the rules of Starlink by using the satellite internet for offensive drone attacks. The dispute centers on whether the commercial service was used to guide fast-moving drones into strikes, a practice Musk said was never permitted under the company's standard terms of service.

Musk posted on social media on Saturday that the Ukrainian military had used the civilian commercial network to kill people with drones. He described this as a loophole that was closed the previous week. He distinguished Starlink from Starshield, the military version controlled by the US government, arguing that the two systems operate under different rules.

Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called the accusation physically impossible in a Sunday Telegram post. Beskrestnov noted that all Starlink terminals operating over Ukrainian territory, including Russian-occupied areas, were already subject to a movement speed limit between 70 and 90 kilometers per hour.

Because the system does not function over Russian territory, Beskrestnov argued that the existing limits made it impossible for Ukraine to use the commercial service for high-speed offensive strikes as Musk described. One current and one former Ukrainian official supported this view, stating that the restrictions SpaceX had previously imposed already blocked the specific usage Musk criticized.

Ukraine has separately accused Musk of throttling its access to Starshield, the military variant it accesses through a US government deal. Zelenskyy announced over the weekend that the new satellite restrictions have been lifted, a move that may end the controversy that began nearly two weeks ago.