Musk says SpaceX restricted Ukraine's Starlink connection as service restored Elon Musk has said his company SpaceX restricted Ukraine's Starlink internet service, after Ukrainian officials said connectivity issues appeared to have been resolved. The tech billionaire accused Ukraine of violating its terms of service by using it for military activity - but denied being responsible for a simultaneous issue with its US-run, military-grade counterpart Starshield. Kyiv has not officially commented on Musk's latest claim but Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said his post was very strange. Musk had earlier denied deliberately throttling Ukraine's connection, which it says hampered its ability to conduct defensive operations. The issue first emerged last week during a broader row between Washington and Kyiv over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure.

Elon Musk says SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company, claiming Ukraine violated Starlink terms of service with deadly drone strikes.

Why is Ukraine so reliant on Starlink and can Europe plug the gap? Ukraine is in desperate need of a new satellite internet service, but a fast and reliable alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink network simply doesn't exist - yet. Last week's sudden slowdown of the service in Ukraine, which affected Kyiv's ability to defend itself from Russian attacks, has shown how vulnerable the country can be, and sharply increased Europe's urgency to have its own military-grade satellite network. There are a few alternatives, but they are all lagging behind Starlink, which is the world's largest satellite constellation. France's Eutelsat, with its OneWeb internet service, is the main alternative - but it only has about 600 active satellites, compared to Starlink's 10,000-plus.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk hold a news conference at the White House in Washington in May 2025. Kyiv - Ukraine said on Saturday that the Starlink satellite system and its military version Starshield were now fully functional after over a week of restrictions that disrupted military operations and intensified tensions with the U.S. But hours later, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating the company's terms. Neither Musk nor the U.S. government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, had taken responsibility for imposing the curbs. "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week," Musk said on X. Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said on the Telegram app that the country is "physically unable" to use Starlink for long-and medium-range attack drone operations.

Ukraine says Starlink connection'now stable' after network limits Image caption, Ukraine's military uses the network of 10,000 low Earth orbit satellites extensively for military operations Ukraine now has a stable connection to Starlink, its defence minister has said, after its military suffered days of restricted connectivity on the satellite network. Kyiv relies on the Starlink and its military-grade counterpart Starshield for piloting drones and operations within Ukraine, but last week accused US President Donald Trump of telling owner Elon Musk to place limits on it. This meant drones would lose connection when travelling at 161km/h (100mph) or more, it said. Trump denied doing so before saying Musk had put it back. Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said that speeds of more than 400km/h were now possible on the network, indicating that full capability had been restored.

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Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to hold talks with United States special envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders in Norway, aimed at ending the war with Russia. The prime ministers of Norway and Finland will attend the talks in Oslo on Tuesday, while President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is expected to attend remotely because of illness. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Zelenskyy requested that Witkoff and Kushner participate in Tuesday's discussions. In a post on X before the talks, Zelenskyy said he had engaged in a "substantive conversation" with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about missile interceptors, intelligence sharing and Starlink, a satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Ukrainians have died because Kyiv is still not receiving reliable US warnings of incoming Russian attacks, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Serhii Flash Beskrestnov told the BBC that lives had been lost because there had not been time to warn citizens about ballistic missile strikes, saying: It's dangerous... I think it's really very bad... The adviser also said restrictions to Ukraine's use of the Starlink internet network were ongoing. The White House said there had been no changes to intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces said its battlefield efforts were temporarily hampered after losing some access to SpaceX’s military-grade satellite Internet service. Experts tell TIME why Starshield is so uniquely important on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Is the war entering a new phase? The supernova-like blasts of exploding Russian ballistic missiles are followed by thunderous thumps, shockwaves, fires and deaths - and the staccato of Ukrainian air defence systems. This week's nightly attacks on Ukraine that killed at least 15 and wounded dozens resembled hundreds of previous raids - with one exception. But Ukraine's partners did not provide the country with intelligence data from NATO's early-warning satellites, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, as tensions between Washington and Kyiv rise. He did not name the United States and President Donald Trump has denied that Washington has stopped sharing intelligence.