Musk and Rubio Spar with the Polish Minister on the use of Starlink by Ukraine

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Technological billionaire Elon Musk have had a contentious exchange with Poland’s Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, in a series of publications on Sunday on the use of the Musk Starlink satellite system in Ukraine.

In an answer to a Musk post that he mentions he turned off the system, Sikorski implied that any threat to close Starlink would give rise to a search for other suppliers.

Rubio quickly ruled out the statements that Musk closed the system and urged Sikorski to be grateful.

The trio was back and forth in an exchange of publications in X that ended with musk calling Sikorski “Small Man”.

The Starlink system is part of Spacex’s mission to provide high -speed internet to remote and unattended areas, such as war zones, worldwide.

Sunday’s exchange began when Musk published that Starlink was the “spine of the Ukrainian army.”

“All his line in front would collapse if he turned off,” he wrote.

Sikorski then responded to Musk’s Post, saying that Poland was paying for the service.

“The Ministry of Digitization of Poland pays Ukraine at the cost of approximately $ 50 million per year,” Sikorski wrote. “The ethics of threatening the victim of separate aggression, if Spacex proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

Sikorski’s post caused Rubio to intervene, writing that Polish Foreign Minister was “simply inventing things.”

“No one has made any threat about cutting Ukraine of Starlink,” Rubio wrote.

“And I said thanks because without Starlink Ukraine I would have lost this war a long time ago and the Russians would be on the border with Poland at this time,” he added.

Later, Musk responded to Sikorski’s publication by calling him a “small man.”

“Be quiet, little man. You pay a small fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” Musk wrote.

Starlink terminals are key to the operations of the Ukraine Army and have been used since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

There are tens of thousands of terminals in the country, including up to 500 bought by the United States Department of Defense in June 2023.