 "Starlink owns around 60 per cent of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet.")
After a clash of words with Poland’s outspoken foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, billionaire Elon Musk pledged to maintain Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite network . The assurance came amid fears that Musk may block Ukraine’s access to his internet-providing network after the US suspended providing military intelligence to the war-torn nation.
It is pertinent to note that the private Starlink communication system is used extensively by Kyiv’s frontline troops for battlefield communication. On Sunday, during a fierce clash with the Polish foreign minister on his own social media platform X, Musk pledged that he would not take away Starlink’s access to Ukraine. “To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals,” Musk wrote.
“I am simply stating that, without Starlink, the Ukrainian lines would collapse, as the Russians can jam all other communications! We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip,” he added while sparring with Sikorski, which also drew US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
‘Be quiet, small man’: Musk clashes with Polish FM
The whole saga started on Sunday when Musk argued that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse” if he turned off Starlink for Kyiv’s forces. This assertion prompted Sikorski, who said in a post on X: “Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year.” “The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” he added.
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More ShortsThe remarks from the Polish foreign minister came while Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, was defending himself from accusations of being biased toward Russia. “I literally challenged Putin to one physical combat over Ukraine, and my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off,” the billionaire said in the post. “What I am sickened by is years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose.”
Musk soon replied to the Polish FM’s jab, calling him a ‘small man. “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” he responded.
Rubio later came to Musk’s defence, accusing the Polish politician of “making things up”. “No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” the secretary of state wrote on X. “And say thank you because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago, and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now,” he added.
Tensions between the United States and Ukraine reached a boiling point following a public spat between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the meeting, the Republican firebrand went on to accuse Zelenskyy of “ gambling with World War Three .”