According to a statement by entrepreneur Elon Musk, satellite communications are intended only for civilian and defense purposes. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
"Starlink is a commercial service. <...> Its use is limited to actions of a civilian or defense nature, and it cannot be used for military offensive operations, because such a thing is unacceptable for a commercial company," noted the founder of SpaceX.
Musk also explained the difference between the civilian Starlink network and the military Starshield satellite system. According to him, the latter is owned and controlled by the US government.
Any restrictions concerning the system's operating speed or the operating modes of its software are set by the US military and the president.
This statement by the entrepreneur was made in response to a post by former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on the social network X. That post mentioned that Starlink connectivity had been restored at speeds of up to 160 km/h.
Fedorov also called for completely lifting restrictions concerning the military version of the system — Starshield.
Advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky, Serhiy Beskrestnov, expressed regret that SpaceX had reduced the operating speed of the Starlink system for Ukrainian military personnel. According to him, this situation led to the disruption of some previously planned operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and worsened their ability to shoot down drones with jet engines.