Things are heating up between Elon Musk and Poland: "Calm down, little man"

On March 9, Elon Musk stated that he would maintain Ukraine's access to Starlink. Shortly before, the billionaire had pointed out that without his satellite internet system, the Ukrainian front line would "collapse". 

The current right-hand man of Donald Trump assured on X (formerly Twitter), that Ukraine would never see its access to Starlink cut off. "To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with Ukrainian policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals." 

It will never be a bargaining chip

Shortly before, on the morning of March 9, the head of Tesla had stated that the Ukrainian army would collapse if Kiev were deprived of its network. "Without Starlink, the Ukrainian lines would collapse because the Russians can jam all other communications! We would never do that or use it as a bargaining chip". 

To which Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, had responded: "If Starlink proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other providers," stating that Poland was paying 50 million dollars a year for Ukraine's access to Starlink, reports the media outlet L’Indépendant. 

Made-up stories

The threat didn't please the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who accused Radoslaw Sikorski of"making up stories". "No one threatened to cut Ukraine's access to Starlink", he emphasized.

For his part, Elon Musk advised the head of Polish diplomacy to calm down. "Calm down, little man". "You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there's no replacement for Starlink."

As a reminder, the United States has frozen its military aid to Kiev, temporarily halted its intelligence sharing and prohibited Ukraine from accessing some of its satellite imagery. The objective: to force the country to negotiate a peace agreement with Moscow. 

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: L’Indépendant - Picture: ©picture alliance / Captital Pictures | Aaron Schwartz)