An influential Russian state television pundit has suggested Russia should target Elon Musk’s satellites in space with nuclear weapons.
“I don’t understand why, for example, Elon Musk’s satellites are not a legitimate target for us,” Vladimir Solovyov, a well-known state television presenter closely linked to the Kremlin, said in a clip circulating online on Monday, dated Sunday. “One nuclear weapon detonation in space, as I understand it, solves this problem.”
Why It Matters
Starlink, run by Musk’s SpaceX firm, has for years proven vital to Ukraine on the battlefield, with Kyiv leaning heavily on its internet access for communications and for controlling its vast drone fleets. The Starlink network of thousands of satellites sits in orbit much closer to the Earth than other satellites that can be used for similar purposes.
Ukraine has for years said Russian forces have used Starlink terminals along the front line, including in the most hotly contested areas of eastern Ukraine. Musk has vehemently denied that Starlink is being sold to Russia, and said on Sunday his company had effectively clamped down on Moscow’s “unauthorized” use of Starlink after fresh Ukrainian protestations.
What To Know
Solovyov said a nuclear attack on Starlink would come at the cost of Russia’s own satellites, then adding somewhat sardonically: “But we’re way behind anyway—no big deal, we’ll just switch to carrier pigeons.”
Newsweek has reached out to SpaceX via email for comment.
Intelligence agencies from two NATO countries believe Russia is developing an anti-satellite weapon to target Starlink, The Associated Press reported in December. The weapon would litter Starlink orbits with shrapnel, but would also indiscriminately damage others nearby.
Solovyov, an often bellicose voice in Russian state media, accused Musk of a “huge love affair” with Ukraine’s new defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, and said Moscow needed to head off the militarization of space.
Fedorov had said on Thursday that Ukrainian officials had reached out to SpaceX after receiving reports that Russian drones linked up to Starlink were flying over Ukrainian cities. Kyiv “proposed concrete ways to resolve the issue,” Fedorov said.
Fedorov thanked SpaceX president, Gwynne Shotwell, and Musk personally for “their swift response and for immediately beginning work on a solution.” Musk, responding to Fedorov’s public statement on social media, said: “Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked. Let us know if more needs to be done.”
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a separate statement on Sunday that the country was seeing “real results” in cutting off Russian access to Starlink, and said unverified terminals would be “disconnected.”
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Fedorov, said Ukrainian authorities could not publicly detail how it was curbing Russian use of Starlink, but said the new measures were necessary to protect civilian and military sites, as well as critical infrastructure, from Russian drone strikes.
Western analysts said last week Russian troops were “increasingly using” Starlink to extend the range of its strike drones, after the first reports of Moscow using the network in its attack drones sprang up in fall 2024.
The reported 500-kilometer (310-mile) range of Starlink-fitted drones “places most of Ukraine, all of Moldova, and parts of Poland, Romania, and Lithuania in range of these drones if launched from Russia or occupied Ukraine,” the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said on January 27.
Referencing this analysis, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in a public message to Musk: “Why don’t you stop the Russians from using Starlinks to target Ukrainian cities[?]”
“This drooling imbecile doesn’t even realize that Starlink is the backbone of Ukraine military communications,” Musk later responded.
Sikorski and Musk have previously clashed online over Starlink use in Ukraine.
Russian state media reported last month that Moscow’s state-run Roscosmos space corporation would start mass producing a Starlink alternative later this year.
What People Are Saying
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a message to Elon Musk on Sunday: “You are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people.”
“Only authorized terminals will operate in Ukraine. Simple registration. Fast verification,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
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