Elon Musk’s Starlink: A timeline of its role in Ukraine

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is in a powerful position when it comes to Ukraine, thanks to his large technological empire which includes the Starlink satellites – something which could still have a major impact on Ukraine fighting back against the Russian invasion.

Let us get you up to speed.

February 2022: Musk provides Starlink to Ukraine

In the same month which saw Russia invade Ukraine in a so-called “special military operation”, then Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Federov issued a plea directly to Musk on his X/Twitter platform.

“@elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,” he tweeted.

Later the same day, Musk replied: “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.”

The official X/Twitter account for Ukraine ended up thanking the tech billionaire by responding with: “Thnx, appreciate it.”

October 2022: Musk pulls the Starlink service

Fast forward several months, and that service was stopped by Musk, who said they were “just following his recommendation”.

“He” refers to then Ukrainan ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, who told the Starlink owner to “f*** off” when he tweeted a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia which included making the annexed Crimea “formally part of Russia” and redoing elections in annexed regions of Ukraine, with Russia leaving if that is the “will of the people”.

It later emerged, through a letter from SpaceX sent to the Pentagon and reported by CNN, that the tech company could no longer financially support the Starlink service and asked the US government to take over funding.

“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” the letter read.

January 2023: Blocking the use of Starlink for long-range drone strikes

While Musk ultimately decided to continue providing the Starlink service to Ukraine, the billionaire was challenged on not offering “full functionality” in February 2023, and he replied by saying that while Starlink is the “communication backbone of Ukraine”, the company would not “enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3”.

It followed a similar tweet shared by Musk the month before, when he described the aforementioned “communication backbone” as the “damned if you do part”, and described the refusal to allow Starlink to be used for long-range drone strikes as the “damned if you don’t part”.

September 2023: Musk reportedly ordered engineers to switch off Starlink over Ukraine attack on Russian warships

A then upcoming biography on Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson – simply titled Elon Musk – claimed the entrepreneur ordered Starlink engineers to switch off Starlink near the coast of Crimea in order to stop an attack on Russian warships by Ukraine, reportedly because he feared such an attack would push the Kremlin towards starting a nuclear war.

Musk told Isaacson: “How am I in this war? Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars.

“It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

The news was slammed by Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who claimed that Musk “allowed” the Russian fleet to “fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities”, killing civilians and children, as a result of his not allowing Ukrainian drones to “destroy part of the Russian military fleet”.

September 2026: Finland urges Musk to expand Starlink coverage in Ukraine

Three years later, and Finnish president Alexander Stubb told Reuters he pleaded with Musk to make it so Ukraine can strike ballistic missile launchers within Russian territory, as Ukraine faces a shortage of air defences.

Stubb said: “That's why ... I plead that Elon Musk would give the Ukrainians the possibility touse Starlink in areas where there are ballistic missile launchers, either in the occupied territory of Ukraine or in Russia for strategic purposes because that would save lives.”

The Kremlin reportedly said such an expansion would mark a “harmful, potentially dangerous, and reckless step”.

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