NATO country that pays for Kyiv’s Starlink warns Musk as his cap breaks Ukraine’s drone missions: “As your European customers, we are watching you”

Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has publicly rebuked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for recent disruptions in Starlink's operations in Ukraine. Poland, the largest provider of Ukraine's terminals, supplying about 29,500, or roughly half the network, has also installed a Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska that serves much of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine.

On October 13th, SpaceX introduced a 100 mph speed limit on StarShield, a military package used by Ukrainian forces, which caused drone missions to be disrupted without warning. In response, Sikorski tweeted at Musk, "Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, we are watching you."

This comment echoed a previous clash with Musk in 2025 where Musk had called Sikorski a "small man" for pointing out that Warsaw, not SpaceX, foots the bill for the service. Presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov suggested that this was not a coincidence and was likely linked to the current political climate. The StarShield package had previously lacked any data speed limit, and this change directly impacted drones that use Starlink for navigation during flight.

The Ukrainian 7th Air Assault Corps reported that during flights, the connection could drop for 10 to 20 seconds at speeds of 110 to 120 kilometers per hour, making control of the drones more difficult as they continued moving but became harder to manage. This limitation reminds Ukraine of an ongoing fear of a potential shutdown, following concerns raised by Musk backing US President Donald Trump's call for Zelenskyy to resign.