SpaceX’s president disclosed that the business has taken active steps to block Ukrainian military from using essential Starlink satellite technology with Ukrainian drones, which are an important component of their struggle against Russia.
“There are things we can do to limit their capacity to do that,” Gwynne Shotwell told reporters on Wednesday, referring to Starlink and drone usage statistics. “There are some things we can and have done.”
Starlink was never intended to be utilised militarily in the way that it has, according to Shotwell, because the business did not anticipate how deeply – and creatively – Ukrainian military would rely on the technology.
“It was never designed to be weaponized,” Shotwell told a space conference audience. “However, Ukrainians have used it in ways that were not intended and were not part of any agreement.”
Shotwell’s statement that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has hindered Ukrainian forces from properly utilising the technology validates the long-held view that Musk and the company are concerned with Ukraine’s military use of Starlink.
Shotwell told reporters afterwards that Starlink had sent units to Ukraine to “keep the banks operating, hospitals running, and families linked.”
“We know the military uses them for communications, and that’s fine,” Shotwell continued. “However, we never intended for them to utilise it for offensive purposes.”
Musk enraged Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, last October when he proposed a peace proposal on Twitter that said Ukraine should abandon its efforts to reclaim Crimea and transfer control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
That same month, rumours surfaced that the Starlink signal had been limited and was no longer available beyond the front line as Ukrainian troops attempted to advance, effectively stifling their efforts to reclaim land from the Russians. These allegations of outages fanned claims that Musk was caving to Russia.
“That has hampered every Ukrainian effort to get past that front,” a person familiar with the outages told AWN in October. “Starlink is the primary means of communication for units on the battlefield.”
Ukrainian troops have lauded Starlink as a game-changing piece of satellite technology that has allowed them not just to maintain communications but also to effectively target Russian positions with artillery and drones.
After Musk received Ukrainian – and global – acclaim for quickly delivering Starlink capabilities to Ukraine, AWN obtained exclusive documents revealing that SpaceX was attempting to persuade the Pentagon to pay for thousands of terminals, as well as the costly connectivity they require, for Ukraine’s military and intelligence services. Third countries had also covertly acquired thousands of systems for Ukraine.
According to one senior defence source, SpaceX had “the gall to pose like heroes” while making others pay so much.
Musk swiftly responded to AWN’s article, tweeting, “The heck with it…we’ll just keep funding Ukraine’s government for free.”
According to persons familiar with the discussions, SpaceX and the Pentagon have continued to negotiate a prospective arrangement for military troops. Shotwell stated on Wednesday that at least some of the conversations had concluded.
“This was not an Elon thing; I was the one who urged the Pentagon to fund it,” Shotwell said on Wednesday. “We ceased interacting with the Pentagon over the existing capability. They haven’t paid.”
Shotwell noted that SpaceX never imagined Starlink would be used in Ukraine in the way that it has, echoing coverage and tales of Ukrainian troops’ creativity on the battlefield.
“Honestly,” she admitted, “I don’t think we ever considered it. Could it be used in that way? We didn’t consider it. I hadn’t given it much thought. I’m not sure if our Starlink crew did. But we figured it out quite quickly.”
