Elon Musk fessed to slowing down Ukraine’s Starlink connection, claiming that the war-torn country was in the wrong because it was using the company’s services in its war against Russia.
“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote in an X post Saturday. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.”
Musk had previously suggested that he was not responsible for the drop in Starlink’s satellite-supplied internet service over Ukraine last week, which occurred as Russian missiles barraged Kyiv. Instead, Musk blamed the lapse on the recent decisions of the U.S. military and Donald Trump.
Trump refused to take the blame shortly afterward. “I don’t know who did it, but I was not involved,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Wednesday. Trump reportedly called Musk to demand he return service to the region that same day, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Yet despite Musk’s renewed position, Ukraine’s actions early last week were anything but offensive. Russian ballistic missiles slammed two plants supplying heat and electricity to Kyiv and damaged a residential building in the capital city. At least nine people died in the attacks, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services shared in a Telegram statement.
Ukrainian officials suggested that the strikes could have been prevented if they received the proper intelligence—but there was only radio silence. Multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that U.S. officials claimed their defense systems had failed to detect the missiles because of “bad weather,” but Kyiv did not buy the excuse.
The intelligence blunder occurred days after Trump brokered an eyebrow-raising deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Moscow, effectively offering the country an economic lifeline that would allow Russia to continue the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was publicly critical of the arrangement, sparking a multi-day harassment campaign in which the Trump administration called Kyiv and other European capitals, threatening to cut off military intelligence sharing and weapons deliveries unless Ukraine stopped attacking Russian oil refineries.
The White House’s influence over Starlink appears to be greater than the president lets on. Six former senior U.S. officials told Reuters Friday that both the Biden and Trump administrations had previously asked SpaceX to adjust its Starlink internet availability in different countries, including Ukraine and areas of the Middle East.