Elon Musk has blamed Donald Trump for restrictions introduced on Starlink speed for members of the Ukrainian military.
The service provided by Musk’s company SpaceX provides broadband internet and has been used for government and military communications by Ukraine in the war against Russia.
The outage came amid Trump’s demands for Ukraine to completely halt long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Musk of “playing politics” on Wednesday but the tech billionaire has now denied he was involved in the decision.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and POTUS,” Musk wrote on X.
He had previously said that “no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals... We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
Volodymyr Zelensky said that the shutdown meant that “people would die” as a result.
Several combat missions failed on Tuesday evening as a result of the shutdown, an adviser on military technology to Zelensky told The Guardian.
A US official told Axios that the Trump administration was not involved in the Starlink limitations.
The outage came just as Ukraine was hit by ballistic missiles, despiteTrump’s insistence that there is an energy ceasefire in place between the countries.
Poland has said that it pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription, which is crucial for guiding long-range drone strikes that have severely disrupted Russian logistics.