Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has accused Elon Musk, the US tech billionaire owner of SpaceX, of “making money from war crimes”.
Sikorski claimed this was because the X owner was allowing Russia to use his Starlink internet satellite service in its drone attacks against Ukrainian cities.
That came in the aftermath of yesterday’s publication by the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW). It reported that the Russian military were increasingly using Starlink, a service providing internet access in most parts of the globe, in order to increase the range of their drone attacks within Ukraine.
The report notes that BM-35 drones equipped with Starlink have a flight range of 500km, covering most of Ukraine, all of Moldova and parts of Poland, Romania and Lithuania if launched from Russia or occupied Ukrainian territory.
According to the ISW, Starlink is attractive for the Russians because it can be obtained through illicit channels and it is harder to disrupt than global satellite navigation systems such as GPS and Galileo, which are vulnerable to jamming.
Sikorski retweeted ISW’s post on X, adding: “Hey,big man @elonmusk why don’t you stop the Russians from using Starlinks to target Ukrainian cities. Making money on war crimes may damage your brand.”
Hey, big man, @elonmusk, why don't you stop the Russians from using Starlinks to target Ukrainian cities.
Making money on war crimes may damage your brand. https://t.co/dGO6xdFagL— Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) January 27, 2026
This prompted a withering response from Musk who accused Sikorski of ignorance of the fact that Starlink has been central to Ukraine’s war effort.
“This drooling imbecile doesn’t even realise that Starlink is the backbone of Ukraine military communications,” wrote Musk.
The two have exchanged words on X before. In March last year, Musk claimed Ukraine’s defence capabilities were dependent on him and threatened to cut off access to his service.
Sikorski responded, claiming that should Space X prove unreliable then Poland, which has been funding Ukraine’s Starlink connectivity, would look elsewhere for suppliers.
Musk then countered, saying: “Be quiet small man, you pay a tiny fraction of the cost and there is no substitute for Starlink.” He did, though, later say that he would not turn off Starlink for Ukraine.
The only potential competitor to Starlink is the French Eutelsat, which is already involved in supporting Ukrainian government communications. The company has said it was in advanced talks with the European Union about providing additional services for Kyiv.
Sikorski is Poland’s longest-serving foreign minister, with nine years in the role in two centre-left governments led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
