3 days ago
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Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, has called on “friends” to respect their allies and not be arrogant in a post on X that mentioned nobody by name but was published a day after an extraordinary social media spat between top officials in the US and Poland over Starlink satellites.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, accused Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, of “making things up” and suggested on Sunday he was ungrateful, in a strong rebuke after Sikorski said Ukraine may need an alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service if it becomes unreliable.
Poland pays for Ukraine to use Starlink, which provides crucial internet connectivity to Kyiv and its military.
“True leadership means respect for partners and allies. Even for the smaller and weaker ones,” Tusk wrote in English on X. “Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”
Rubio had also said that “no one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink”.
“And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now,” Rubio added.
Sikorski had later replied: “Thank you, Marco, for confirming that the brave soldiers of Ukraine can count on the vital internet service provided jointly by the US and Poland.”
Sikorski had been told to “be quiet” and labelled a “small man” by Musk after he suggested that Poland, which says it pays $50m a year for Ukraine’s Starlink services, may need to find another provider if Musk’s service was deemed unreliable.
The US government has already revoked some access to satellite imagery for Ukraine and paused intelligence sharing, piling pressure on Kyiv as Trump seeks a swift end to the war, which is now in its fourth year after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Shares in the Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat soared by as much as 650% last week amid speculation the company could replace Starlink in providing internet access to Ukraine.
Musk, a high-profile figure in Donald Trump’s administration, said in a post on his X social media platform early on Sunday that Ukraine’s “entire frontline would collapse if I turned it [Starlink] off”.
In a series of posts on X on the subject, that lasted through the day, Musk said later he would not turn off Starlink in Ukraine.
“To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals … We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
