Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials have disputed Claims from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that the country’s military violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the civilian satellite internet network for offensive drone strikes.
Serhii Beskrestnov, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defense technology adviser, said long-standing restrictions on the civilian system in Ukraine made such offensive use impossible.
“It is very strange that Elon Musk is unaware of the restrictions placed on Starlink’s operations in Ukraine,” he wrote in an online post.
SpaceX’s Starlink and its military-oriented Starshield service are essential to Ukraine’s wartime connectivity. Earlier this month, Ukrainian drones connected to Starshield lost high-speed connectivity, disrupting air defenses during daily Russian air attacks. Officials said the so-called speed caps were lifted Saturday and service was restored.
Yet questions persist over who ordered the outages to the satellite internet system that kyiv has relied on for years to counter attacks from Moscow.
In Telegram, Beskrestnov said drones operated through the civilian Starlink system were subject to a speed limit of 70 to 90 km/h (43 to 56 mph) in Ukraine and did not operate in Russia.
“Therefore, we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes or mid-range strikes,” he said.
Musk recognized on Saturday that SpaceX had strangled Starlink in Ukraine.
“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes aimed at killing people has never been authorized, nor should it be,” Musk wrote. “The Ukrainian military violated Starlink’s terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes aimed at killing people. This loophole was closed last week.”
But he maintained that the U.S. government controlled changes to Starshield, the military version of Starlink that is the backbone of drone operations in Ukraine and communication. US President Donald Trump maintained that he did not make that call, while Vice President JD Vance hinted at White House coordination with Musk.
Restrictions imposed last week on Starshield has alarmed Ukraine’s military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions. They also added to tensions between kyiv and Washington, a relationship already strained by Trump’s alleged deal with Moscow to import diesel from Russia which Ukraine considered a betrayal.
The United States makes new efforts to end the war
The restoration of Starlink service follows a new US diplomatic push to end the war. Russia agreed on Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by the First Lady. Melanie Trump around Olechkya war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Separately, Zelensky said Sunday that Russia had launched nearly 2,300 drones targeting Ukrainian cities over the past week, repeating his call for Western allies to speed up interceptor deliveries.
“This week alone, Russia launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, and almost 2,300 attack drones on Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote in an online message.
He said the attacks – many of them deadly – had affected nine regions of the country, damaging power plants, grain warehouses, civilian homes and commercial facilities.
More civilian deaths in Ukraine and Russia
Russia launched more than 20 attacks on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region overnight on Sunday, using drones and an aerial bomb, according to local authorities. Three people died at the scene and a fourth man died later in hospital, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanja reported, while more than a dozen people were injured.
In Vinnytsia, a town in central Ukraine, at least six people were injured when a Russian drone struck a residential building, according to state emergency services. The attack also damaged a nearby retirement home, with emergency crews evacuating 15 elderly residents, the services said.
Still according to emergency services, consecutive Russian strikes against a Kharkiv shopping center injured four people on Saturday evening, including three rescue workers. Ukraine has long accused Russia of carrying out so-called double strikes, in which an initial attack is followed by another once rescuers arrive on the scene.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday its forces had targeted several sites in and around Kharkiv, including a trade and logistics center, which it said housed dual-use goods intended for the Ukrainian military.
In Russia, two people were killed and 13 others injured in Belgorod, a town 40 km from the Ukrainian border, following “massive” night drone strikes by kyiv, regional governor Alexander Shuvayev reported on Sunday.
In the Russian city of Orel, the body of a fourth victim was pulled from the rubble the day after a Ukrainian strike on an industrial plant, local governor Andrey Klychkov reported. On Saturday, local authorities announced that three people had been killed in the attack.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that day that its forces had struck an electronics factory in Orel that makes components for the cruise and ballistic missiles that Russia fires at Ukrainian cities.
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