BBC News, Washington
ReutersSecretary of state Marco Rubio and the technological billionaire Elon Musk had a controversial exchange with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in a series of X messages on Sunday on the use of the Musk Starlink Satellite system in Ukraine.
In an answer to a musk article mentioning the deactivation of the system, Sikorski has suggested that all threats to stop Starlink would lead to the search for other suppliers.
Rubio quickly rejected the claims that Musk closes the system and urged Sikorski to be grateful.
The trio went back and forth in an exchange of messages on X which ended with Musk calling Sikorski “little man”.
The Starlink system is part of SpaceX’s mission to provide broadband internet to distant and un served areas – such as war areas – worldwide.
Sunday’s exchange started when Musk posted that Starlink was “the backbone of the Ukrainian army”.
“All their front line would collapse if I put it out,” he wrote.
Sikorski then responded to the musk position, saying Poland paid the service.
“Starlinks for Ukraine are paid by the Ministry of Polish digitization at the cost of around 50 million dollars per year,” wrote Sikorski. “The ethics to threaten the victim of assault separately, if SpaceX turns out to be an unreliable supplier, we will be forced to seek other suppliers.”
Getty imagesThe position of Sikorski sounded Rubio, writing that the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs “did just do things”.
“No one threatened to cut Ukraine from Starlink,” wrote Rubio.
“And to say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war for a long time and the Russians would be on the border with Poland at the moment,” he added.
Musk later responded to Sikorski’s post calling him “little man”.
“Be calm, little man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” wrote Musk.
Starlink terminals are the key to Ukraine army operations and have been used since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
There are tens of thousands of terminals in the country, including up to 500 bought by the United States Ministry of Defense in June 2023.
