Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the United States has not changed its stance toward Ukraine and has not restricted the operation of the Starshield/Starlink network. He stressed, however, that Starlink’s terms of service must be followed.
“We haven’t rolled anything back. But there are terms of service that ultimately have to be met, and it’s in those matters that Starlink has the ability to make decisions; nothing has changed on our side,” Hegseth said during a visit to Wisconsin.
He was responding to reporters’ questions about restrictions on Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite internet network, in Ukraine.
Hegseth’s remarks, like earlier denials from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, conflict with claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Ukrainian military personnel and experts, who say the network stopped working for objects moving faster than 160 km/h (about 100 mph). This is said to limit Kyiv’s ability to intercept drones and effectively counter Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine uses both the commercial Starlink network and the military Starshield. Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, which owns the network, says Starlink cannot be used for military purposes and that, in the case of Starshield, decisions are made by authorities.
According to the British daily The Telegraph, it was Musk who was behind the decision to restrict the network’s operation. The Wall Street Journal also confirmed those reports on Tuesday.
Hegseth also denied that U.S. policy toward Ukraine has changed at all. He did admit, however, that when it comes to deliveries of interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system, the United States’ priority is its own needs. According to Ukrainian officials, Hegseth halted the transfer of such systems to Ukraine from third countries.
Authorities in Kyiv also claim that on several occasions in recent days the United States failed to pass on to Ukraine warnings of Russian ballistic missile attacks. Rubio says there has been no change in information sharing and denied that the U.S. is taking any actions meant to harm Ukraine.
From Washington, Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
