The Ukrainian defense minister today thanked Elon Musk and his company SpaceX for taking steps to prevent Russia to use Starlink satellite communication systems to send drones over Ukraine.

“The first measures are already yielding results (…) Thank you for being with us. You are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people,” Minister Mikhailo Fedorov told the X platform, addressing Elon Musk.

The Ukrainian minister was responding to a message posted today by the American billionaire: “It seems that the measures we took to stop Russia’s unauthorized use of Starlink worked. Let us know if more measures are needed,” Elon Musk wrote on X.

Tell us if more measures are needed.

Mikhailo Fedorov clarified that Kiev is working “in very close cooperation” with SpaceX on “important measures in the near future.”

In a separate message to X, he clarified that these measures include the implementation of a registration system for Starlink terminals operating from Ukrainian territory.

“In the coming days, we will communicate to Ukrainian users the necessary instructions in order to register and confirm their Starlink stations. Unconfirmed stations will be deactivated,” he said.

On Thursday, January 29, Mikhailo Fedorov announced that Kiev had contacted SpaceX after “the appearance of Russian drones with a Starlink connection over Ukrainian cities” and that he was seeking solutions with Elon Musk’s teams.

Since late December, the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, has been recording the integration of Starlink systems into Russian attack drones, increasing their range to 500 kilometers.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Russian military acquired the Starlink stations through parallel circuits such as imports from third countries, not through an official sale by Ilon Musk’s company.

A general shutdown of the Starlink system in Ukraine would be complicated due to the fact that it is also massively used by the Ukrainian military for its communications.

Fedorov had said on Thursday that “Elon Musk’s decision to urgently activate Starlink and send the first batch of stations to Ukraine at the beginning of the large-scale invasion was critical to Ukraine’s resilience.”

In March 2025, Elon Musk had briefly threatened to cut off the Ukrainian military’s access to his network in order to put pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky to quickly sign a peace deal that the White House wanted.