Ukraine-Musk Dispute Continues to Escalate. Kyiv Now Rejected Violating Starlink Terms.

A Ukrainian official publicly rejected Elon Musk's claim that the country violated Starlink's terms of service by using the satellite system to conduct offensive operations, further escalating the clash between Kyiv and the billionaire as the war with Russia drags on.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote a post on Sunday to explain why Kyiv would have not been able to operate in such a way to break Starlink terms.

"It is very strange that Elon Musk is unaware of the operational limitations of Starlink in Ukraine," Beskrestnov said in a passage of a Telegram post. He went on to say that the satellites don't "function over the territory of Russia."

"Consequently, it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for us to use commercial Starlink for deep-strike or medium-range strike operations," he said.

Musk, on his end, had said during the weekend that "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be."

"Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. 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. Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia," Musk added.

"SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR. That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell."

Ukrainian officials said during the weekend that satellite services were working normally again following days of disruption that hampered efforts to stave off Russian attacks.

The Wall Street Journal detailed on Thursday that Trump called Musk to restore Ukraine's access to the satellite network. Kyiv initially said the access had not been fully restored but that changed over the past days.