Musk could make major Starlink decision over Russia, says Zelensky
Musk refused to let Ukraine use Starlink for attacks inside Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said SpaceX’s Elon Musk could reconsider his position on allowing Starlink services to operate over Russian territory.
The decision in February 2026 to permanently end the service agreement for Russian forces was central to Ukraine’s military victories this year, SpaceX has also declined to let Starlink usage on drones flying into Russia itself.
In this connection, Zelensky said: “Elon Musk has said that this constitutes an escalation.”
According to Zelensky, the primary motive to provide Starlink to Ukraine could mitigate precisely those competencies that Russia is relying on to drag the geopolitical conflict.
With permission to use flawless high-speed communications between combat stations, Ukrainian forces also rely on Starlink internet which allows for an almost unjammable network however these terminals do not work over Russian territory.
This marks the area where Ukraine’s extended-long range campaign against Russian military targets, oil infrastructure and logistics facilities intends to exert tactical aggressive leverage against Russia.
The deployment of Starlink equipped drones against Russia has been promoted as a viable alternative against Russian ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine. This strategy aims to immediately destroy the mobile launch sites for Russian Iskandar and North Korean ballistic missiles as soon as they move into position.
According to Zelensky, he was informed by the Defense Ministry that Musk had approved the use of Starlink over Russia and now he just needed to obtain official support of Trump.
He (Trump) said that I kind of tricked him because Musk denied Ukraine the use of Starlink on the territory of Russia,”
“I went back to our defense ministry, and they said that maybe that's how it was indeed.”
“There have been many such challenges over the course of this war, and we have, through different pathways, found our way out of difficult situations,” Zelensky continued.”
