Washington (AFP) – Billionaire industrialist and senior White House advisor Elon Musk vowed Sunday to maintain Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite network, after a fierce online clash with Poland’s outspoken foreign minister. The United States has suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after a disastrous February 28 meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. This has led to fears that Musk, a close Trump ally, might cut off Ukrainian access to his private Starlink communications system, which is used extensively by Kyiv’s frontline troops for battlefield communication.
On Sunday, during exchanges on his own X social media platform, Musk promised that this would not be the case, after an online clash with the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, that drew in US 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 wrote. “I am simply stating that, without Starlink, the Ukrainian lines would collapse, as the Russians can jam all other communications! We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
Trump’s administration is pressuring Zelensky to sign over much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to the United States and to agree to a ceasefire with Russia without clear security guarantees as a prelude to a peace deal. Musk supports this position and warned on Sunday that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse” if he turned off Starlink for Kyiv’s forces, which have been battling a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
This prompted Sikorski, in a post on X, to warn: “Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.” Musk responded with scorn, telling the Polish minister: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”
Washington’s top diplomat, US Secretary of State Rubio, was also drawn into the exchange, accusing Sikorski of “just making things up.” “No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink. And 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,” he said.
© 2024 AFP
