Ukraine disputes Elon Musk's claim that its military violated Starlink's terms of service

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Ukraine disputes Elon Musk's claim that its military violated Starlink's terms of service

2026-10-25 23:45 Last Updated At：23:50

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials have disputed claims by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that the country’s military violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the civilian satellite internet network for offensive drone strikes.

Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said long-standing restrictions on the civilian system in Ukraine made such offensive use impossible.

“It’s very strange that Elon Musk doesn’t know about the restrictions on Starlink’s operation in Ukraine,” he wrote in an online post.

SpaceX’s Starlink and its military-focused Starshield service are critical to Ukraine’s wartime connectivity. Earlier this month, Ukrainian drones connected to Starshield lost connectivity at high speeds, disrupting air defenses during daily Russian air attacks. Officials said the so-called speed caps were lifted on Saturday, and the service was restored.

Still, questions have persisted about who ordered the interruptions to satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.

Musk acknowledged on Saturday that SpaceX had throttled Starlink in Ukraine.

“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.”

But he maintained that the U.S. government controlled whatever changes happened with Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink that is the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication. U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained that he didn't make that call, while Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk.

Restrictions imposed last week on Starshield alarmed the Ukrainian military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions. They also added to tensions between Kyiv and Washington, a relationship already strained by Trump’s reported deal with Moscow to import diesel from Russia that Ukraine viewed as a betrayal.

The restoration of Starlink service followed a new U.S. diplomatic push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russia had launched nearly 2,300 drones targeting Ukrainian cities over the past week, renewing his call on Western allies to speed up deliveries of interceptors.

“This week alone, Russia has launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote in an online post.

He said the attacks — many of them deadly — had affected nine regions of the country, damaging power plants, grain stores, civilian homes and commercial facilities.

PHOTO ESSAY: A Texas Trump voter, struggling with cancer and medical bills, breaks party ranks

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Nov. 3 election is fast approaching at a moment when some Republican voters, frustrated by ever-rising prices, could turn on their party.

Cindy Banda, a Texan and three-time supporter of President Donald Trump, is one of them.

For Banda, 46, her political shift began after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

For more than a year, through a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the single mother with six children in her care had to stop working even as her medical debt rose beyond $25,000.

The experience forced her into a grueling day-to-day financial scramble.

Her goal? “Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable.”

To do that costs roughly $7,000 a month, exacerbated the rising tide of other costs, chief among them gas and groceries.

Banda tries not to dwell on death and debt because, she says, “it’ll consume you.”

She smothers those thoughts beneath her bubbly demeanor and avoids being alone. But that truce, between her insistence on positivity and the fears that it covers, is brittle.

Certain thoughts still arrive uninvited. Banda’s late sister, Melissa, didn’t have life insurance when she was killed. Banda, who cares for Melissa’s three children in addition to three of her own, makes sure it’s a payment she never misses.

“Sometimes I think, and I shouldn’t think like this, but I’m worth more gone than here,” she said one day, her eyes red and welling beneath her blue eyeliner.

“Obviously, the goal is not that, the goal is to beat it,” she continued, “to keep the house and keep the cars.”

And so far she has, the generosity of others helping keep her just beyond the reach of each month’s tide of bills.

That’s included financial help from the father of her 9-year-old, as well as Banda’s own father. Her high school classmates fundraised by selling food from a roadside tent. Two GoFundMe fundraisers raised near $30,000.

Still, the months of uncertainty took their own sleepless toll, and she recently returned to work selling internet services to businesses door to door, just before the midterms.

A lifelong Christian, Banda had voted her anti-abortion stance in past elections.

She voted for Trump in each of his campaigns, but two years into his second term, she has found no respite from high prices.

So when James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, visited one of Banda’s fundraisers — speaking about his diabetes and his work in the Statehouse to lower the price of insulin — it moved her.

Talarico supports a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide, which Banda has voted against for years. But after she slid into debt to stay alive, Banda’s anti-abortion concerns have been superseded by costs.

“Because it’s what I’m living,” she said. “I’m living it.”

Banda cast an early ballot for Talarico.

“Never voted Democrat before today!!” she wrote in a text with blue heart emoji.

This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.