Ukrainian officials have accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of limiting Starlink service for terminals on the move, saying the restrictions disrupted military operations and left Kyiv exposed to deadly attacks. The allegation, leveled on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, also triggered a sharp response from Poland, which pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscriptions.
Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence technology adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the service had been limited without warning for terminals travelling faster than 100 mph overnight on Wednesday. That step, he warned, effectively restricted Ukraine’s ability to launch drones, which depend on satellite internet to pilot the aircraft.
Writing on Telegram, Beskrestnov said Ukraine was “deprived of one of the few chances to defend itself from Shahed drones”. He added that frontline logistics and long distance missions had also been disrupted.
The suggestion that Musk’s company had throttled Starlink drew the anger of Poland, which funds Ukrainian Starlink subscriptions on Kyiv’s behalf. “Hey Elon Musk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”
The “big man” remark referred to a public social media dispute in 2025 involving Musk, Sikorski and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio. During that exchange, the SpaceX chief told Sikorski to “be quiet, small man” on his X platform.
The clash began when Musk, a trillionaire former senior adviser to US President Donald Trump and a key midterm election donor for Trump’s Republican Party, said Ukraine’s “entire frontline could collapse” if he switched off Starlink. He later said, “No matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals … We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
The slowdown came after Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv for the second night in a row, killing at least nine people and damaging electricity and heating infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine did not receive its usual warnings from Western allies, without specifying which partners. Trump said the US has not stopped sharing intelligence.
Beskrestnov warned that the slowdown “cannot be a coincidence” after Trump struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel, despite international sanctions meant to isolate Moscow.
Speaking to AFP, another Ukrainian official accused Washington of throttling Starlink and helping Russia.
On Saturday, Trump suggested Zelenskyy had not done enough to end the war with Russia, blaming him for high diesel prices in the US.
The dispute over Starlink access has added to tensions surrounding Ukraine’s military operations, Western intelligence sharing and Poland’s role in funding Kyiv’s satellite subscriptions.
