According to Shotwell, Starlink was never intended to be used as a weapon. “However, the Ukrainians used [саме так] unintentionally and out of any agreement”– said SpaceX’s chief operating officer during a conference in Washington.

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Later, speaking to reporters, he referred to reports that the Ukrainian military was using the Starlink service to control drones. to determine the positions of the invaders.

There are things we can do to limit their ability to do this. There are things we can do and are already doing
– Shotwell said.

It was not specified what measures the company had taken. The manufacturer’s official view is that the use of Starlink to control drones is beyond the scope of SpaceX’s agreement with the Ukrainian government. The contract was for humanitarian purposes, such as providing broadband internet to hospitals, banks and families affected by the Russian occupation.

We know the military uses them for communication, and that’s okay. But we never wanted them to use it for offensive purposes,
says Gwynn Shotwell.

The head of the company assures that no one “thought about it” when he decided to ship the terminals. “We didn’t think about it. I didn’t. Maybe our Starlink team did, I don’t know. But we learned very quickly.”.

Starlink suffered outages in Ukraine late last year for reasons SpaceX did not disclose. When asked if the cuts were related to SpaceX’s efforts to limit Starlink use, Shotwell said he couldn’t answer: “I don’t want to answer this question because I’m not sure I know the answer”.