Elon Musk claims Ukraine violated Starlink’s terms of service before the recent slowdown, as reported earlier by Ars Technica. According to Musk, “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” however Ukrainian officials have denied that happened, or that it is actually possible for them to do.
The statement comes nearly two weeks after Ukrainian officials accused SpaceX of putting limits on the military’s satellite internet service that disrupted its drone missions and operations. As reported by Axios, Ukraine uses Starlink for communications, logistics, and to defend against incoming drones. For offensive missions, officials say that Ukraine uses Starshield, the US military-controlled variant of Starlink.
Musk points to a post from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which said Ukraine uses “Starlink from mid-range strikes against enemy military targets,” in violation of Starlink’s policies. However, Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology advisor for Zelenskyy, pushed back on this in a post on Telegram, saying Starlink’s systems can only connect to devices traveling between 70 and 90 kilometers per hour (around 43 and 55 miles per hour) and don’t work in Russia. “Therefore, we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes or medium-range strikes,” Beskrestnov wrote.
Ars Technica also points out a tweet from another former Ukrainian advisor, Serhii Sternenko, that went into more detail, saying that while stationary terminals could be registered (with Starlink) by military personnel or civilians, “for any satellite terminal to work while on the move, it had to be added to a special list and connected to the military Starshield system… In other words, using civilian Starlink for drone missions was technically impossible. All drone missions that required satellite communication could only be carried out using Starshield.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Starlink and Starshield services had been fully restored. With the restriction lifted, Ukraine’s military can now connect to devices traveling at speeds of more than 400kmh (248mph), the Kyiv Independent reports.