The Trump administration is gradually changing a position concerning Ukraine. American negotiators, who put pressure on kyiv to obtain access to the country’s strategic ores, would have mentioned the possibility of cutting its access to the Internet Satellite Starlink system of Elon Musk, revealed in Reuters Three sources close to the file. On Saturday, February 22, the multimillionaire and right-hand man of the American president denied this information on his social network X (ex-Twitter). The article, according to him, is “false” and the “ment” news agency. However, it has maintained its information.
As a reminder, Starlink, owned by the company SpaceX, provides a crucial internet connection to kyiv and its army, in order to replace the communication services destroyed by Russia after its invasion launched in February 2022. The Kyiv Independentaround 42,000 Starlink terminals are operational in hospitals, businesses and the army in Ukraine. “Losing Starlink would change the game,” Reuters Melinda Haring, principal researcher at Atlantic Council, told Reuters.
Since the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, tensions have increased between Washington and kyiv, who complained of being excluded from negotiations. Indeed, the United States and Russia have led peace talks on Tuesday, February 18 in Saudi Arabia, without inviting the main concerned. Volodymyr Zelensky worried about seeing the White House tenant influenced by Russian disinformation after Donald Trump describes him as “election without elections”.
“Ukraine works on Starlink”
It is in this tense context that the Ukrainian president therefore rejected a proposal made on February 12 by the American secretary to the Treasury, Scott Bessent. It aims to give companies across the Atlantic the ownership of 50 % of the rare land deposits of Ukraine – or $ 500 billion in mining wealth – in order to reimburse its military aid in the country. kyiv estimates, according to a Declaration this Sunday of the Vice-Prime Minister Ioulia Svyrydenko, to have for “350 billion dollars” of “critical natural resources”, including the titanium, in territories occupied by Russia. If these metal groups interest the Trump administration, it is because of the current Chinese domination on the market. Indeed, China controls 70 % of the global capacity to extract rare earths and 90 % of the treatment capacity, as recalled by the Express.
Except that for the Ukrainian head of state, the agreement was too focused on American interests and lacked provisions likely to contribute to dissuading a future Russian aggression, reported the Associated Press. “I did not let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because in my opinion, he is not ready to protect us, to protect our interests,” justified Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich security conference, which was held from February 14 to 16. And it is therefore in reaction to this refusal that the subject of Starlink arrived on the table, according to Reuters. “Ukraine works on Starlink. They consider it their polar star,” said the same source. “Losing Starlink … would be a blow.”
Poland will continue to finance Starlink
The threat of cutting access to the Internet was again agitated Thursday, February 20, at meetings between Keith Kellogg, the American special envoy for Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the sources in Reuters said. The same day, the American pressure on kyiv intensified with the words of the American national security advisor, Mike Waltz, who declared in an interview on Fox News That Ukrainian leaders had to “moderate their attitude, think carefully and sign this agreement”.
Friday, February 22, the Ukrainian president wanted to be reassuring, saying that the American and Ukrainian teams worked on the subject. “This agreement can add value to our relationships – what matters most is to obtain the right details to guarantee that it really works,” wrote on Volodymyr Zelensky social networks … which does not close the door to any scenario. The Minister of Defense, Roustem Oumerov, assured this Sunday that his services were working on “alternatives” to Starlink. “One solution already exists,” he added, promising to reveal details soon.
Whatever happens, Poland assured that it would continue to finance Ukraine access to Starlink, said to Bloomberg Deputy Prime Minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski. “I cannot imagine that someone can decide to break a commercial contract for a commercial service to which Poland is involved,” he added. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron must meet Donald Trump in Washington – on different days – next week, while NATO is thinking about managing the prospect of peace negotiations between the United States and Russia which exclude, for the moment, Ukraine and its European allies.