Elon Musk said Ukraine’s military violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the commercial satellite network for offensive drone strikes, according to The Verge and Ars Technica^1,2.

Musk wrote that using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes has never been allowed, and that Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government². He said a loophole was closed last week².

Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said speed limits already applied to Starlink terminals over Ukrainian territory and that Starlink does not function over Russia, making deep-strike use of commercial Starlink physically impossible^2,8.

Zelenskyy said over the weekend that Starlink and Starshield operations had been restored to prior speeds after more than a week of disruptions^2,9. NPR reported Zelenskyy had said Ukrainian officials believed U.S. government direction prompted the limits, while Musk had earlier said Starshield limits are decided by the U.S. military⁹.

In a later post cited by Meduza, Musk said a reason Starlink must remain a civilian operation is the risk that an adversary would destroy satellites, creating debris that could make space unusable⁸. Several other items in this assignment concern an unrelated Alaska elections lawsuit and are not part of the Starlink dispute^3,5,6,7.