Ukraine wants broader access to SpaceX’s Starlink and Starshield satellite systems so it can strike the Russian launchers firing missiles at its cities, Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview reported on Sunday 27 September by RBC-Ukraine. Kyiv’s current access to those capabilities, he said, is not sufficient. (RBC-Ukraine’s English write-up gives Budanov’s title as head of the Office of the President rather than the military intelligence role he is usually identified with internationally, without explaining the difference.)
What Ukraine already has is carrying a heavy load. Newsweek reports that the country leans on Starlink terminals both to keep internet communications running and to let its military pilot the large drone fleets it flies on the battlefield. The same outlet notes why the launchers matter so much: Russia’s ballistic missiles are very difficult for Ukraine to intercept, and Kyiv has warned that its supplies of the few missiles able to destroy those fast-travelling weapons before they hit targets such as power plants are running down ahead of the winter months. Both Budanov and, last week, Finland’s president have framed their requests around destroying the launch equipment rather than shooting down what comes off it.
The interview landed a day after Newsweek reported that Russia said it hit a Starlink-linked data centre in Kyiv during an overnight wave of attacks — a reminder that the argument over access is being conducted while the physical plant behind the service is being bombed.
What Budanov asked for, and what he left unspecified
Budanov put the request in terms of Russian missile systems, according to RBC-Ukraine: the capabilities are critically needed so Ukraine can repel attacks and strike the launchers from which missiles that terrorise its civilian population are fired. He said Ukraine is interested not only in satellite communications but in the wider technological capabilities that Starlink and Starshield provide, and that what Kyiv wants is increased coverage.
That is the whole of the public ask. Neither RBC-Ukraine nor Newsweek sets out which features Kyiv is seeking, over what geography, or whether the request is for service, hardware or data. No official in either report attaches a figure to it — no count of terminals in use, no size for the drone fleets they fly, no number of Russian launchers Ukraine is trying to reach. Budanov’s wording, as relayed by RBC-Ukraine, stops at capability and coverage.
Starlink and Starshield are not the same product
The distinction matters to the ask. Starlink is the commercial satellite internet network that Newsweek describes as using thousands of satellites in low orbits to deliver internet access, run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX; it is the service Ukrainian units already rely on through ground terminals, and SpaceX sells it openly, with hardware and monthly service tiers published on its Starlink site and availability opened country by country as licences are granted. Starshield is the separate line SpaceX markets to governments on its own website, built on Starlink technology and pitched at national-security work spanning secure satellite communications, earth observation and hosted payloads for customer hardware. It has no public price list and no consumer sign-up page.
So the two halves of Budanov’s request sit on opposite sides of a commercial line. More Starlink coverage is a question of service terms and permissions on a product anyone can buy; Starshield capability is a question of a government contract that, on the public record, Ukraine does not have. Neither report says who would pay for either, or whether Washington would be the counterparty.
Why the ground infrastructure became the target
A constellation in orbit is hard to touch; the buildings that feed it are not. Newsweek says Russia has stated it is homing in on data centres to cut off internet access for Ukraine’s military, and that Moscow’s government said on Friday it had struck another Kyiv data centre, shortly before Ukraine announced new measures to protect data centres and communications sites.
The clearest measure of what that campaign costs civilians is a number Ukraine’s own government put out: Newsweek reports it said a Russian attack disrupted internet access for around 100,000 households in Kyiv on Wednesday. Several internet providers in the capital said their services were disrupted and at least two internet companies said their own data centres had been damaged. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said the same day that Russia has targeted major Ukrainian data centres seeking to disrupt the flow of information, including air raid alerts for civilians, per the same report. The US-based Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, said on Friday the strikes on data centres are “one of the latest Russian attempts to disrupt the Ukrainian economy.”
Inside Kyiv the disruption reached broadcasting as well: Ukrainian media reported that Russian attacks have wreaked havoc with internet access, Newsweek says, and a Ukrainian television channel said it stopped transmitting early on Saturday because of damage to data centres in the capital.
Key facts
- Budanov said Ukraine’s interest extends past satellite communications to the broader technological capabilities of Starlink and Starshield, RBC-Ukraine reported, and that present access is insufficient.
- Russia’s defence ministry said it used drones against the Cosmonova data processing centre in Kyiv, which it said “provided mobile internet service and support” for Ukraine’s Starlink use, per Newsweek.
- Ukrainian officials said a drone crashed into an office building in the Solomyanskyi district of Kyiv, where Cosmonova is located. Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said five people were injured in strikes across the capital in the early hours of Saturday.
- Ukraine’s government said roughly 100,000 Kyiv households lost internet access after Wednesday’s attack, with at least two providers reporting damage to their own data centres.
- Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Fedienko, who heads the parliamentary subcommittee on cybersecurity and communications, said Kyiv does not believe the strikes have damaged Ukrainian military activity, in Newsweek’s account.
- Musk has previously refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink over Russian territory, per RBC-Ukraine citing The Atlantic — see the section below on earlier requests.
- SpaceX has not commented publicly on Budanov’s request in either report.
Kyiv has asked before, and been turned down
Sunday’s interview was not the opening bid. Newsweek reported, citing the Financial Times last month, that Ukraine asked for permission to use drones equipped with Starlink against Russian ballistic missile launchers positioned more than 100 miles inside Russia — the one concrete parameter attached to any version of the request so far.
The answer, so far, has been no. RBC-Ukraine, citing The Atlantic, reported that Musk refused to give Ukraine the possibility of using Starlink over Russian territory, with sources pointing to his position on further escalation of the war and the need for a peace agreement as one possible reason.
Zelensky, Trump and the UN sidelines
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said in August that Kyiv was still in talks with the United States about potential Starlink use over Russia, Newsweek reported. RBC-Ukraine’s account adds that at the end of August Zelensky described attempts to reach an agreement with US President Donald Trump and Musk on the use of Starlink in Russia, and that Trump afterwards said Ukraine needed to speak directly to Musk to obtain permission for strikes on Russian territory. The Ukrainian official quoted by RBC-Ukraine said the issue also came up when Zelensky and Trump met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The effect is that a wartime targeting question keeps being routed back to a private company’s owner.
A Finnish president joins the lobbying
Last week Finnish President Alexander Stubb made a similar appeal to Musk. Newsweek describes Stubb as a staunch Ukrainian ally with a solid relationship with Trump, and says he stated on Thursday that he had asked Musk to broaden Ukraine’s military access to Starlink so Kyiv can take out equipment used to launch Russian ballistic missiles.
The strain is spreading past Ukraine’s borders
Poland has its own incident. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said this week that a fire at a Starlink ground station in Poland on Wednesday may have been sabotage intended to thwart internet access for Ukrainian forces, Newsweek reported. Polish officials said they could not confirm whether Russia was responsible, and investigations are underway. Taken with the Kyiv data centre strikes, it puts the ground segment of a satellite internet network — not the satellites — at the centre of the story in two countries at once.
What is still unknown
The gaps in the reporting are the things that would decide whether Budanov’s request is even actionable. Nobody has said which Starshield or Starlink capabilities Ukraine is seeking beyond wider coverage, or whether that coverage would extend over Russian territory — the point on which Musk has already said no. Nobody has said through what mechanism it would be granted: a change to Starlink’s terms of service, a new Starshield contract, or an arrangement brokered by Washington, and nobody has said who would pay. No official figure exists in either report for how many terminals Ukraine operates, how large the drone fleets are, or how many launchers sit inside the 100-mile band the Financial Times described, which makes the scale of the ask impossible to price. Neither SpaceX nor Musk has responded publicly to the request in either account. And Polish investigators have not said who set the ground station alight.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are Starlink and Starshield sold, and who would pay for wider Ukrainian access?
They reach customers by very different routes. Starlink is sold openly as a satellite internet subscription, with hardware and monthly service tiers listed on SpaceX’s own Starlink site and availability set country by country as the company obtains licences. Starshield is marketed on a separate SpaceX page aimed at national-security customers and carries no public price list; government systems of that kind are typically bought under contract rather than off a website. Neither RBC-Ukraine nor Newsweek says which route Kyiv’s request would take, who would fund expanded access, or whether a third government such as the United States would sit between SpaceX and Ukraine.
Has Elon Musk agreed to let Ukraine use Starlink over Russian territory?
No. RBC-Ukraine, citing The Atlantic, reported that Musk refused to give Ukraine that possibility, with sources pointing to his position on further escalation of the war and the need for a peace agreement as one possible reason. President Donald Trump later said Ukraine would have to speak directly to Musk to obtain permission for strikes on Russian territory, and the Ukrainian official quoted by RBC-Ukraine said the issue came up again when Zelensky and Trump met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
How many Starlink terminals does Ukraine use, and how many launchers is it trying to reach?
Neither report puts a number on either side of the equation. Newsweek describes Ukraine relying on Starlink terminals to keep internet communications running and to pilot large drone fleets, and RBC-Ukraine relays Budanov’s request in terms of capability and coverage rather than counts of hardware. The only distance figure on the record comes from Newsweek’s citation of the Financial Times last month: Ukraine sought permission to use Starlink-equipped drones against Russian ballistic missile launchers positioned more than 100 miles inside Russia.
Have Russian forces used Starlink terminals themselves?
According to Newsweek, Ukrainian military intelligence reported widespread, “systemic” adoption of Starlink terminals by Russian troops by early 2024. Musk denied selling Starlink services to Russia and said SpaceX had effectively clamped down on Moscow’s unauthorised use. Newsweek adds that in February 2026 Starlink said it had added security measures inside Ukraine so that terminals not on an approved white list would not work.
Is Russia building its own alternative to Starlink?
Yes. Newsweek cites Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, who said last month that Russia had rolled out its Rassvet system “much faster than originally planned.” He told RBC Ukraine in August that once Russia deploys a full satellite constellation the system will operate like Starlink, and that discussions on how to counter it were already underway.
How has internet access held up in Kyiv during the strikes?
Newsweek reports that Ukraine’s government said a Russian attack disrupted internet access for around 100,000 households in Kyiv on Wednesday. Several providers in the capital said their services were hit and at least two internet companies said their own data centres had been damaged; a Ukrainian television channel said it stopped broadcasting early on Saturday because of damage to Kyiv data centres. Ukraine announced new measures to protect data centres and communications sites shortly after Moscow said on Friday it had struck another one.
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