Elon Musk has struck a rare conciliatory note, saying he would never cut off Ukraine from crucial Starlink support, de-escalating a row with the Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski that also involved U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals,” Musk said in the X post.
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Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX and owned by Musk. It provides satellite Internet access coverage to most of the Earth.
The X row is the latest episode of tension between the U.S. and Europe over the war in Ukraine.
The billionaire founder of SpaceX triggered the argument earlier on Sunday with an X post in which he speculated about turning off Ukraine’s access to the company’s Starlink system.
He wrote: “My Starlink System is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”
U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to the service, Reuters reported in February.
The Trump administration paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following the notorious White House clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28.
Poland’s Sikorski fired back, saying, “if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we [Poland] will be forced to look for other suppliers.” The foreign minister added that Poland pays $50 million annually for Ukraine’s Starlink access.
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The post has provoked the ire of Musk and Rubio, who accused Sikorski of “making things up” and told him to “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.”
“No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” Rubio wrote.
Sikorski responded by saying: “Thank you, Marco, for confirming that the brave soldiers of Ukraine can count on the vital internet service provided jointly by the U.S. and Poland.”
He added: “Together, Europe and the United States can help Ukraine to achieve a just peace.”
“Unthinkable”
Musk, who applauded Rubio for his post, writing that the “Secretary is absolutely correct,” offered a more scathing critique of the Polish diplomat. “Be quiet, small man,” he wrote, adding: “You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”
Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign affairs Correspondent of The Wall Street Journal, took to X to describe the war of words as “another extraordinary moment in diplomacy.”
“Europe’s technological decoupling from the U.S., unthinkable weeks ago, is becoming a national security priority,” he wrote.
The claim that Starlink is the only company that can provide Ukraine with the satellite support it requires is disputed.
Shares in Franco-British satellite operator EutelsatETL.PA, one of the companies that could potentially replace SpaceX, soared as much as 650 percent during the week ending March 7, ending up around 380 percent on Friday.
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