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The Trump administration’s top diplomat joined DOGE chief Elon Musk in picking a fight with Poland’s foreign minister on Sunday as the three squabbled over Musk’s Starlink system and its use in Ukraine.
Sunday’s three-way exchange was just the latest example of American foreign relations turning into a blame game as Marco Rubio, the secretary of State, reiterated the White House’s position that Europe was insufficient with its praise and gratitude after three years of US support for Ukraine’s defense.
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, responded to the Tesla and X/Twitter CEO on social media after Musk barked back at a self-identified MAGA fan who rebuked him and Donald Trump for not treating Russia as the aggressor in the conflict. Musk’s tweet highlighted that his Starlink satellite program was crucial to Ukraine’s defense, and in doing so speculated about the consequences of him turning it off.
He tweeted: “I literally challenged Putin to one on one physical combat over Ukraine and my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off. What I am sickened by is years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose. Anyone who really cares, really thinks and really understands wants the meat grinder to stop. PEACE NOW!!”
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Sikorski responded, apparently to the concept of Starlink being turned off, writing that Poland’s government was paying $50m a year for it and warning that Poland would seek another provider “if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable” partner.
He wrote: “Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”
That set off Musk. He responded with an insult, calling Sikorski “small man”, and argued that no other telecom provider could match Starlink’s capabilities.
He wrote: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”
It also triggered a response from Rubio, formerly a vocal supporter of Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion. In 2022, he called on the Biden administration to publicly state that the US would support Ukraine’s government “as long as they are willing to fight, even if it’s only an insurgency,” during an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
Rubio’s presence at the Oval Office blowup between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was picked apart on social media, as his critics noted the secretary appeared uncomfortable and remained quiet through the entire combative exchange.
The secretary wrote in a tweet on Sunday that Sikorski was “[j]ust making things up” by suggesting that Musk was considering ending Starlink’s contracts with the Ukrainian military. “No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” wrote Rubio, adding: “And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.”
His latter remark echoed the words of Vance, who’d questioned Zelensky during their confrontation whether the Ukrainian leader had said “thank you” for the continued support of the US government (he had repeatedly done so).
But Musk assured his followers separately that he would not see Starlink services cut off to Ukraine over a dispute with Poland’s foreign minister.
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“To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals. Without Starlink, the Ukrainian lines would collapse, as the Russians can jam all other communications! We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip,” he wrote.
His claim about the US using such a service as a “bargaining chip” is rather ill-timed, given that the White House ordered American intelligence agencies to cease real-time cooperation with the Ukrainian military within the past week. In response, Russia has renewed a deadly offensive against Ukrainian defensive positions and civilian centers.
