KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials have disputed claims by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that the country’s military violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the civilian satellite internet network for offensive drone strikes.
Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said long-standing restrictions on the civilian system in Ukraine made such offensive use impossible.
“It’s very strange that Elon Musk doesn’t know about the restrictions on Starlink’s operation in Ukraine,” he wrote in an online post.
SpaceX’s Starlink and its military-focused Starshield service are critical to Ukraine’s wartime connectivity. Earlier this month, Ukrainian drones connected to Starshield lost connectivity at high speeds, disrupting air defenses during daily Russian air attacks. Officials said the so-called speed caps were lifted on Saturday, and the service was restored.
Still, questions have persisted about who ordered the interruptions to satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.
Writing on Telegram, Beskrestnov said that drones operated via the civilian Starlink system had a speed restriction of 70–90 kmh (43-56 mph) within Ukraine and did not work in Russia.
“Therefore, we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes or medium-range strikes,” he said.
Musk acknowledged on Saturday that SpaceX had throttled Starlink in Ukraine.
“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.”
But he maintained that the U.S. government controlled whatever changes happened with Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink that is the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication. U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained that he didn't make that call, while Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk.
Restrictions imposed last week on Starshield alarmed the Ukrainian military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions. They also added to tensions between Kyiv and Washington, a relationship already strained by Trump’s reported deal with Moscow to import diesel from Russia that Ukraine viewed as a betrayal.
The restoration of Starlink service followed a new U.S. diplomatic push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russia had launched nearly 2,300 drones targeting Ukrainian cities over the past week, renewing his call on Western allies to speed up deliveries of interceptors.
“This week alone, Russia has launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote in an online post.
He said the attacks — many of them deadly — had affected nine regions of the country, damaging power plants, grain stores, civilian homes and commercial facilities.
Russia launched more than 20 attacks on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region overnight into Sunday, using drones and an aerial bomb, according to local authorities. Three people died at the scene and a fourth man later died in hospital, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha reported, while over a dozen people were injured.
In Vinnytsia, a city in central Ukraine, at least six people were injured when a Russian drone struck a residential building, according to the state emergency service. The attack also damaged a nearby care home, with emergency crews evacuating 15 elderly residents, the service said.
Also according to the emergency service, consecutive Russian strikes on a shopping center in Kharkiv injured four people late on Saturday, including three rescue workers. Ukraine has long accused Russia of so-called double-tap strikes, in which an initial attack is followed by another once rescuers arrive on the scene.
Russia's Defense Ministry on Sunday claimed its forces targeted multiple sites in and around Kharkiv, including a shopping and logistics center, that it said had stored dual-use goods meant for the Ukrainian military.
In Russia, two people were killed and 13 others injured in Belgorod, a city 40 km (25 miles) from the Ukrainian border, following “mass” nighttime drone strikes by Kyiv, regional Gov. Alexander Shuvayev reported on Sunday.
In the Russian city of Oryol, body of a fourth victim was pulled from the rubble the day after a Ukrainian strike on an industrial plant, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov reported. On Saturday, local authorities said three people had been killed in the attack.
Ukraine's General Staff that day said its forces hit an electronics plant in Oryol that makes components for the cruise and ballistic missiles Russia fires at Ukrainian cities.
