SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that if Ukraine fires through Starlink, Russia would be entitled to shoot the network down. That is why Starlink must remain a civilian operation and cannot be used for outright offensive strikes that would put its very existence at risk.

The warning lands in the middle of a fight over Musk’s own hand on that network. Weeks ago, his company unexpectedly throttled the service Ukraine’s drones depend on amid US President Donald Trump diesel deal with Russia, which led to the disruption of a few operations on the front.

The US Treasury authorized the sale, delivery, offloading, and import of Russian-origin diesel fuel, effectively suspending sanctions on that trade until 7 April 2027, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on its website on 9 October.

The diesel deal combining intelligence halt and military Starlink, with pressure on Ukraine to make a quick peace deal, has angered both Democrats and Republicans ahead of the US elections on 3 November, where Democrats could win.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official interprets Musk's talk of strikes as an attempt to build an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision.

A civilian network, or a target

Musk was responding to a post warning that if Starlink shifted from a civilian network into a military system, Russia could treat it as a target for retaliation, and that destroying satellites in orbit could scatter enough debris to make space unusable for years or centuries.

“An adversary blowing up Starlink satellites would create a domino effect of destruction that would generate a vast field of debris, making space unusable," he writes.

When the shield and the warnings failed together

Overnight into 14 October, SpaceX quietly capped the speed of Starshield, the military version Ukraine’s drones run on, without telling Kyiv. Ukrainian units said the limit broke a series of missions, with connections dropping mid-flight and leaving drones hard to control.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine relies on the network for air defense, not attack, to intercept the Russian drones Moscow sends to its cities, and that once the speed was cut, his forces could no longer stop some of them as effectively as before.

Simultaneously, Ukraine's other American lifeline also went dark: for about three days, the US stopped passing the intelligence that warns of Russian ballistic launches. On 12 October, Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv before the air-raid alert reached people, with no advance data from partners. In a strike during that window, three people were killed in the capital, the sirens sounding only after the blasts.

A Ukrainian official sees alibi-building

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the ex-head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, read Musk’s statement as self-protection rather than physics

“Musk, having taken responsibility for the restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine, is now trying to build himself an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision,” he wrote.

He said that regardless of who was behind the idea of restricting Starlink and Starshield access for Ukraine, it represents a strategic setback for the US in the long run, as it risks portraying the country as an unreliable partner that may fail to honor its commitments.

"Europe purchases around 60% of its imported weapons from the US. Trust in the US as a security guarantor directly supports sales for American defense companies. Moves like this only undermine that trust and encourage European countries to develop their own systems," he said.

The US has sent a message that its guarantees may not be reliable and that even paid-for services can be subject to political decisions, Kovalenko stressed.

Key developments on Oct. 24-25:

• Starshield operations restored to normal speed, Zelensky confirms as Elon Musk claims Ukraine violated Starlink terms
• Russian attacks kill 8, injure 51 across Ukraine over past day as drone strikes residential building in Vinnytsia
• Moscow ready to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine, US after Nov.

On the trail, James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee, has increasingly gone after Mr. Musk, a critic of his who has given big to a group aligned with the Republican candidate, Ken Paxton.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times; Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

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.

Elon Musk met en garde l'Ukraine sur son utilisation de Starlink. Kiev dépend de ce système de communication par satellites et de sa version de niveau militaire, Starshield, dans ses efforts pour se défendre contre...

He recognizes a cool thing when he sees it.

“Os termos de utilização do Starlink mantiveram-se consistentes: trata-se de um sistema civil, e não de um meio para matar. Qualquer violação destes termos resultará no encerramento do serviço”, avisou o magnata. O magnata norte-americano do setor tecnológico Elon Musk, responsável da SpaceX, acusou a Ucrânia de violar os termos de utilização do Starlink, após vários dias de limitação de velocidade, no meio de tensões com Washington. “Os termos de utilização do Starlink mantiveram-se consistentes: trata-se de um sistema civil, e não de um meio para matar. Qualquer violação destes termos resultará no encerramento do serviço”, escreveu Musk na rede

Il sistema satellitare Starlink/Starshield usato dall’Ucraina nella guerra di difesa contro la Russia è tornato a operare a pieno regime dopo giorni di malfunzionamenti, ma la polemica non si placa. Elon Musk ha pubblicato un post su X parlando per la prima volta delle interruzioni riscontrate dai dispositivi prodotti dalla sua azienda Space X e utilizzati dall’esercito ucraino. Nel post il miliardario ha accusato l’Ucraina di aver violato i termini di utilizzo del suo servizio internet Starlink: “L’uso di Starlink, un servizio commerciale civile, per attacchi di droni offensivi volti a uccidere persone non è mai stato consentito, né dovrebbe esserlo”.

Musk ha aggiunto che SpaceX, che gestisce la rete satellitare, ha chiuso il “loophole” (“scappatoia”), senza tuttavia fornire dettagli tecnici precisi. Ha inoltre voluto marcare una netta distinzione tra Starlink, descritto come un servizio civile, e Starshield, un sistema parallelo sviluppato da SpaceX ma controllato direttamente dal governo degli Stati Uniti che può essere impiegato per scopi militari: “Starshield, un sistema diverso, è controllato dal governo degli Stati Uniti. Ciò che decidono di fare dipende da loro”.

“Starlink – ha aggiunto il miliardario sudafricano – rimane fondamentale per la difesa dell’Ucraina, in quanto è l’unico sistema che non può essere oscurato o fatto saltare in aria, almeno per ora. Se Starlink venisse disattivato, la linea del fronte ucraino crollerebbe immediatamente. Questa NON è una minaccia – ha tenuto a specificare -, è semplicemente la constatazione di un fatto”.

Poco prima che Musk lanciasse dure accuse ai critici affermando di provare “totale disprezzo per i malvagi guerrafondai che fanno sfoggio di virtù”, in Ucraina la situazione ha iniziato a sbloccarsi. Volodymyr Zelensky ha confermato che i droni hanno ripreso a volare a velocità normali dopo oltre una settimana di tensioni e rallentamenti che avevano gravemente ostacolato le operazioni militari al fronte. Le interruzioni avevano infatti ridotto la velocità dei droni ucraini a medio raggio a meno di 40 miglia orarie (circa 65 km/h), facendone precipitare molti per perdita di segnale e lasciando le truppe e le infrastrutture civili più esposte ai contrattacchi russi.

Il ripristino delle piene funzionalità è avvenuto a seguito di forti pressioni politiche a Washington, dove un gruppo bipartisan di senatori ha minacciato di bloccare le nomine dell’amministrazione Trump se non fossero state ripristinate le capacità operative di Starshield in Ucraina. SpaceX ha poi inviato una lettera al Congresso confermando di aver riallineato il servizio commerciale Starlink alle priorità politiche del governo statunitense.

Le affermazioni di Musk sull’uso di Starlink per scopi offensivi sono state fermamente respinte da Kiev. “È molto strano che Elon Musk non sia a conoscenza delle restrizioni sul funzionamento di Starlink in Ucraina – ha scritto su Telegram Serhiy Beskrestnov, esperto militare di primo piano nel campo delle radiotecnologie, delle telecomunicazioni e della guerra elettronica e consulente di Zelensky -. A partire dall’inverno del 2026, tutti i terminali Starlink sul territorio dell’Ucraina (compresi i territori occupati) hanno un limite di velocità di movimento di 70-90 km/h. Sul territorio della Russia, Starlink non funziona. Di conseguenza – conclude Beskrestnov -, non POSSIAMO FISICAMENTE UTILIZZARE IL SERVIZIO COMMERCIALE STARLINK per attacchi di tipo ‘deep strike’ (a lungo raggio) e ‘middle strike’ (a medio raggio)”.

Anche Serhii Sternenko, ex consulente del ministero della Difesa ucraino, respinge le accuse di Musk, spiegando in un post su Telegram come la gestione dei dispositivi sia rigidamente regolata. Per fare chiarezza sul meccanismo, ha precisato che “nel febbraio di quest’anno sono state introdotte delle ‘liste bianche‘”, veri e propri registri di sicurezza gestiti dal governo nei quali potevano essere registrati i terminali fissi sia per scopi militari sia per necessità civili e umanitarie. Tuttavia, il blocco scatta quando i dispositivi si spostano rapidamente: “Affinché un qualsiasi terminale satellitare potesse funzionare in movimento, era necessario inserirlo in una lista speciale e collegarlo al sistema militare Starshield. Altrimenti, nessun terminale di comunicazione satellitare in Ucraina funzionava”. Quindi “utilizzare proprio lo Starlink civile per eseguire missioni con i droni era tecnicamente impossibile“. “Tutte le missioni dei droni che richiedevano una comunicazione satellitare potevano essere effettuate esclusivamente utilizzando Starshield – conclude Sternenko -. L’Ucraina non ha violato i termini d’uso“.

Nel frattempo i due eserciti continuano a scambiarsi colpi. Una persona è morta e altre dieci sono rimaste ferite in seguito all’attacco con droni contro Belgorod, in Russia, secondo quanto riferito dal centro operativo regionale.

“Quasi ogni giorno” gli “attacchi brutali” della Russia in Ucraina “provocano morti e feriti”, come quelli, avvenuti ieri sera, in cui sono rimaste uccise quattro persone nella regione di Dnipro, ha scritto su X Zelensky. “Altre 22 persone sono rimaste ferite, tra cui una bambina di 11 anni”, ha aggiunto il presidente ucraino.

Zelensky ha riferito inoltre che a Vinnytsia, a sud-ovest di Kiev, un drone russo ha colpito un edificio residenziale a più piani e sei persone sono rimaste ferite, mentre a Kharkiv “i russi hanno prima colpito un ipermercato di bricolage e articoli per la casa, per poi sferrare cinicamente un attacco doppio (double-tap) contro i soccorritori giunti sul posto”, con “alcuni operatori dei servizi di emergenza rimasti feriti”.

L'articolo Elon Musk accusa: “Kiev ha usato Starlink per uccidere persone”. La replica: “Falso, in Russia non funziona” proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.

• Bill Gates says AI will bring about an age of abundance in 20 years, but it'll be a rocky road.
• He predicted robots will displace human workers and "build houses, grow food, do surgery."
• Some jobs might be reserved for people, and work limits could preserve employment, Gates said.

Bill Gates says AI will create "true abundance," but the next two decades before it arrives will be "as tumultuous a period as there's been in human history."

"My big concern is this 20-year transition period, where they'll have winners and losers and a lot of disruption," the Microsoft cofounder and billionaire philanthropist said on the latest episode of the "Decoder" podcast.

Gates echoed widespread concerns about white-collar jobs, saying that telesales, telesupport, and accounting will disappear as AI will be able to do those "radically cheaper, radically faster, and even more accurately." As for blue-collar jobs, humanoid robots will take over those, he said.

"If we don't choose to massively slow down or stop, then we will have robots that can build houses, grow food, do surgery," Gates said. "And none of the things that human labor provides to the economy will be necessary for most goods and services."

He also underscored how jarring it will be for someone like him, whose vast resources have allowed him to lead the charge toward eliminating malaria and tackling other humanitarian crises.

"And when the AI says to me, 'No, I'm better than you, you go play pickleball and I'll get back to you, I'm gonna take care of this' — I mean, it's kind of humorous, but it's not humorous," he said.

Gates shared his long-held view that work is vital to giving people a sense of purpose, a way to earn an income, a reason to show up every day, an avenue to build relationships with colleagues, and a path to build things and solve problems.

He suggested that certain activities such as art, sports, cooking, and childcare could one day be reserved for humans, "even though the AI could do those things better."

Gates also highlighted that measures such as early retirement and caps on working hours could help maintain some level of human employment.

He envisioned some people saying, "Let's be like the Amish and let's only use AI for certain things," so they won't have to give up "helping each other or coming up with unique ideas."

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon have both proposed a shorter workweek as a less painful alternative to AI-driven unemployment.

Gates is one of several tech leaders to warn of job disruption on the road to an age of abundance.

Elon Musk has predicted a "bumpy" transition and proposed government checks for all as the best solution to AI-driven job losses. He's said that technology will drive production costs so low that everyone can have "whatever stuff they want," work will become "optional," and it's not worth saving for retirement in 10 or 20 years as money won't matter.

Similarly, Anthropic's Dario Amodei has said that AI promises to "raise the quality of life for everyone," but the "short-term shock will be unprecedented in size."

However, OpenAI's Sam Altman said in May that AI hasn't eliminated as many white-collar jobs as he expected, and he no longer anticipates a "jobs apocalypse."

Despite widespread worry about AI taking corporate jobs, and high-profile layoffs at major companies such as Amazon and Meta, national unemployment hasn't increased materially during the AI boom.

Ukraine's military satellite links work at full speed again after a cap that hobbled its drones, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said on 24 October. Hours later, SpaceX owner Elon Musk, who earlier pointed at Washington, said his company had enforced its own rules. A Ukrainian presidential adviser and a drone volunteer replied that civilian Starlink could not fly such missions.

Ukraine holds off Russia with American tools it doesn't control, so any pause decided abroad, like stalled Patriot deliveries or the Starlink cap, opens gaps in its defense. With no stated rule on what Ukraine's forces may do, the next cutoff could again come unannounced and unexplained.

Kyiv records full speed again

The ministry recorded stable connections above 400 km/h (250 mph). Before, Kyiv said, links on Starlink and its military version, Starshield, cut out above 161 km/h (100 mph).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the restoration began overnight. "The speeds are now where they need to be," he said, citing defense against jet-powered Shahed drones. He thanked US lawmakers, the media, the State Department, and the US President, but not Musk or SpaceX.

Musk: "That loophole was closed last week"

Musk replied "Correct" to an X user who called Starlink "not a weapons system." "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week," he wrote.

Correct.

Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be.

Starshield, a different system, is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them.

Ukraine military violated… https://t.co/ZXBB8bYfPn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2026

He called Starshield "a different system" the US government controls, and warned: "Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact."

Musk named no evidence, cases, or time frames. Overnight, he answered a headline on the US financial blog ZeroHedge saying he "admits" SpaceX throttled Starlink.

"We simply enforced our terms of service when they were bypassed. There has been no change to our terms of service," Musk wrote.

When the cap hit on 14 October, Musk wrote that the US government owns and controls Starshield and that the US military and "ultimately POTUS" decide any limits. US President Donald Trump, who credited Musk with the fix while Kyiv still saw the cap, said on 24 October he had spoken to Musk about Ukraine but gave no details.

Ukrainians note contradiction to reality

Ukrainian presidential adviser on defense technology Serhii Beskrestnov, known by the callsign Flash, wrote:

"It is very strange that Elon Musk doesn't know about the restrictions on Starlink operations in Ukraine."

Since winter 2026, every Starlink terminal over Ukraine, occupied areas included, has been limited to 70–90 km/h (43–56 mph), he said, and over Russia, Starlink does not work. "So we PHYSICALLY CANNOT USE COMMERCIAL STARLINK for deep strikes and mid-range strikes," Beskrestnov wrote. Deep strikes hit targets far inside Russia, mid-range ones targets closer to the front.

Ukrainian activist and drone fundraiser Serhii Sternenko called Musk's claim untrue. He said Ukraine introduced whitelists of terminals in February, and any terminal used on the move had to be listed and connected to Starshield.

"So using civilian Starlink for drone missions was technically impossible. All drone missions that needed satellite communication could be carried out only with Starshield," Sternenko added.

European governments help pay for Ukraine's Starlink service. Germany funds it under a contract that runs until April 2027. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, whose country pays around $50 million a year for the service, said on 23 October: "Mixing business with politics usually ends badly, especially when we talk about Elon Musk."

When Hulk Hogan sued the tabloid Gawker in 2016 for publishing a sexual video without his consent, no one gave him a chance of winning. But Hogan won the case and was awarded $140 million in damages, which led to the online outlet’s demise. Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most shadowy figures, tipped the legal battle: he secretly funded Hogan’s lawyers. He wanted revenge on Gawker because it had ridiculed him for years and outed him as gay.

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Robert Reich is one of the most tireless critics of American economics and politics. Millions of people turn to his Substack essays and social media videos to make sense of the complexities of the moment. He is an academic turned influencer, and at 80 he does it with an effectiveness, rigor and simplicity that the savviest millennials and Gen Zers would envy.

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© Kyle Parker (Inequality Media Civic Action)

Elon Musk on Saturday alluded to being behind last week’s Starlink slowdown in Ukraine which impacted the country’s military capabilities. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” Musk wrote on social media Saturday. The slowdown happened as Ukraine’s military…

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that speed restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink connection have been lifted.
• His comments marked the end of a chaotic 10-day period where connection speeds were throttled.
• Ukraine uses Starlink to fly its drones and interceptors.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that his military's access to a network of Elon Musk's satellites, which it relies on for defense, had been restored.

Zelenskyy's comment, made in an X post, came after a chaotic 10 days that began when an advisor to the Ukrainian president said that drones and other projectiles were losing access to the Starshield network.

Starshield is the military application of Musk's Starlink satellite network. In the no-man's-land of war-torn eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military relies on Starshield satellites to give it control of fast-flying, exploding drones and interceptors.

"I thank all Americans and all our partners who took this seriously and truly helped — members of Congress, senators, all the media, the State Department, and the President," Zelenskyy said in a video he posted to X on Saturday.

Though Musk, as the CEO of SpaceX, to some degree owns the network of satellites, he said in an X post that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

In an X post on Saturday, Musk differentiated between Starlink, which is used for commercial purposes, and Starshield, which is "controlled by the US government," he said.

"Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people," Musk said. "That loophole was closed last week."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk himself had ordered the slowdown. Earlier this month, after Ukraine targeted Russian oil facilities, both Musk and President Donald Trump made statements disparaging Zelenskyy. Trump has tried to ease high gas prices — which spiked after the US attacked Iran in February — by loosening sanctions on Russian energy.

"Zelensky has gone too far," Musk said in an X post on October 10.

For his part, Trump told reporters that he didn't know who ordered the slowdown. "I don't know who it was, but I'd like to find out," he said on October 19.

As Russia attempts to bombard Kyiv into submission ahead of what is widely expected to be one of the most brutal winters of the nearly seven-year-long war, a Starlink connection allows Ukraine to intercept some of Russia's slower-paced drones.

The throttling of Starlink prompted a rare outburst from Ukraine's leader, who has sought to control his demeanor after a disastrous Oval Office meeting last year, when Trump berated Zelenskyy for not adequately appreciating US support.

In an interview with Piers Morgan on his YouTube channel on October 14, Zelenskyy called the Starlink slowdown "a big mistake."

"This decision will bring a lot of human losses," he said.

SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent on Saturday.

Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow's attacks.

But Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns Starlink, accuses Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms

Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted.

But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs.

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© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

Ukraine’s Starlink satellite links have been restored after the country experienced limitations with accessing this critical technology, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Saturday.  SpaceX’s military-grade version of Starlink, called Starshield, supports Ukraine’s drone operations and communication.  Zelensky confirmed the restoration in a statement shared on social media Saturday afternoon local time.  “The speeds are now…

L’Ucraina è tornata a usare a pieno regime il sistema Starlink nel conflitto con la Russia. Gli specialisti del ministero e delle Forze di Difesa hanno registrato che Starshield, la versione militare della rete satellitare utilizzata da Kiev per manovrare i droni in funzione offensiva e difensiva contro l’esercito di Mosca, è ora in grado di operare regolarmente anche a velocità superiori ai 161 km/h.

A metà ottobre, SpaceX ha applicato un blocco software per cui i terminali perdevano istantaneamente la connessione satellitare se l’hardware si muoveva a una velocità fisica superiore ai 160-161 km/h. Questo limite ha ostacolato l’esercito di Kiev poiché i droni intercettori ucraini, muovendosi a velocità elevate per inseguire i droni russi (che viaggiano a oltre 400 km/h), superavano i 161 km/h, si “disattivavano” a mezz’aria a causa della perdita di segnale e precipitavano nel vuoto.

Nelle ultime ore, ha fatto sapere il ministro della Difesa ucraino Yevhenii Khmara, il sistema rimane stabile anche a velocità superiori ai 400 km/h: “È un risultato fondamentale per il fronte: per il nostro personale militare, per le operazioni con i droni, per la logistica e le comunicazioni”. “Questo è un ulteriore esempio di come il dialogo diretto e la posizione risoluta assunta dal presidente dell’Ucraina ai massimi livelli producano risultati”, ha aggiunto il ministro della Difesa.

L'articolo Ucraina, Starlink torna a funzionare: “Stabile a velocità sopra i 400 km/h” proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”

© Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

Kyiv had accused US of strangling systems it depends on defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks