Ukraine’s Starlink Is Restored, But Murkiness Remains
Over the weekend, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Starlink commercial civilian broadband service was restored to its pre-disruption speeds in Ukraine, confirming the company caused the slowdown following more than a week of speculation.
Ukraine also said the service was restored, but that seems to be all that the two are on the same page about:
- In an X post, 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.”
- Serhiy Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, disputed the CEO’s allegations. “Starlink does not work over Russian territory. So we PHYSICALLY CANNOT USE COMMERCIAL STARLINK for deep strikes and mid-range strikes,” he wrote.
Cause for confusion
In addition to Starlink, SpaceX also offers Starshield, a military-grade service for defense applications. But Musk once again insisted this weekend that the Starshield disruptions Ukraine experienced (as opposed to the Starlink disruptions) came not from him, but from the US government.
Zoom out: CNBC commentators wrote, “No matter what really transpired with Starlink’s suspension of service to Ukraine, Musk may now face customers diversifying away from total reliance on SpaceX as his ultimate reckoning.”—HVL
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