The billionaire has denied the agency’s report on plans to cut Ukraine off Starlink to pressure it to accept the rare earths deal
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has accused Reuters of “lying” in response to its report that he was planning to threaten to cut off Ukraine’s Starlink internet access in order to provide the White House with leverage in its ongoing bargaining over natural resources.
The agency reported on the matter on Saturday, citing three US officials familiar with the plans. According to Reuters, the Ukrainians were threatened with an “imminent shutoff” of Musk’s Starlink satellite service during a meeting between Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg in Kiev this week, should they not sign the deal on rare earths with Washington.
Musk took to his social media platform X later in the day, denying the existence of such plans and accusing Reuters of having fabricated the story.
“This is false. Reuters is lying. They are second only to AP (Associated Propaganda) as legacy news liars,” the billionaire wrote.
Read more
SpaceX has provided the Ukrainian military with Starlink internet since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, delivering more than 40,000 terminals over the course of the hostilities. The terminals have promptly become a key command and control tool for Kiev’s military.
Musk’s systems have also seen direct combat use, with satellite terminals repeatedly seen rigged to aerial and sea drones used by the Ukrainian military to provide them with reliable and hard-to-jam control access.
SpaceX reportedly secured a new Pentagon contract to expand Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite network late last year. According to a Bloomberg report, a total of 3,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine were granted access to Starshield, a more secure and militarized version of the system, under the deal.