Ukraine says SpaceX restricted its Starlink access
Jonathan Raa/Getty Images
Ukraine accused SpaceX of suddenly restricting its access to the Starlink satellite network, scrambling the country’s defense tech and forcing it to pause some battlefield operations. An aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Serhii Beskrestnov, said yesterday that Ukrainian vehicles and projectiles traveling above 100 mph can no longer connect to Starlink’s military-grade system, StarShield.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said StarShield is operated by the US government and the company can’t place restrictions on users.
“Cannot be a coincidence”
Beskrestnov said the throttling of the Pentagon-backed system—which Ukraine’s military uses to guide drones and interceptor missiles to deflect attacks—came without warning, and was influenced by “the current political situation.”In recent weeks, President Trump has pressured Ukraine to stop striking Russia’s energy facilities, suggesting that the attacks push up global energy prices. Musk seconded the sentiment over the weekend, saying “Zelensky has gone too far.”
On Saturday, Trump announced a pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, which Zelensky told Axios Ukraine would accept as long as Russia reciprocates.
But Russia is already ramping up attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities. Russian strikes killed at least 10 people and injured dozens, and left 600,000 without power yesterday, per Ukrainian officials.
Meanwhile…Ukrainian officials said this week that the US military didn’t provide advance warning about two Russian attacks, interpreting it as a sign that the US is scaling back intelligence sharing, which Trump denied.—SK
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