Elon Musk and SpaceX have gotten caught up in very public battles over Starlink’s role in the war in Ukraine, but they’re also being drawn into another, less visible conflict: Russia’s shadowy campaign of hybrid operations against the West.
The past few weeks have seen attacks and attempted sabotage against Starlink infrastructure across Europe. Western officials are blaming Russia for at least some of the incidents, and Ukrainian intelligence has warned that Moscow could ramp up these efforts.
Kęstutis Budrys, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said on Sunday that a sabotage attempt targeting Starlink infrastructure near Vilnius was thwarted the previous night. He said that the aim was to “undermine a capability critical” to Ukrainian defense and civilian communications.
Budrys characterized the incident as “a direct consequence of Russia’s war” and later described the act as an element of Russian hybrid operations against Europe — sabotage, attacks, drone incursions, and other actions that Western officials have attributed to Moscow in recent years. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement.
Starlink infrastructure is a growing target. The civilian satellite internet service and its military-grade variant are used by NATO and Ukraine for battlefield communications and operations.
Last week, Poland blamed Russian intelligence services for a sabotage incident in September — two Turkish citizens were arrested in connection with a fire at a Starlink satellite station near Warsaw. Donald Tusk, the country’s prime minister, called the attack “another act of hybrid warfare.”
There was also a recent attack on Starlink antennas near Bulgaria’s capital, according to media reports.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence warned on October 2 that Russia could target Starlink infrastructure in Europe as part of its campaign.
Speaking Monday, after the most recent incident involving Starlink, Lithuania’s Budrys said that “we are seeing coordinated efforts to target critical infrastructure linked to support for Ukraine, logistics chains and other important facilities.”
“These are not isolated crimes,” he added. “They are part of Russia’s broader hybrid campaign against Europe, aimed at intimidating allies, undermining support for Ukraine, and testing our resilience.”
Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its embassies in Poland or Lithuania responded to requests for comment from Business Insider about these allegations.
Lithuania’s defense ministry said in a statement that the thwarted attack is not the first time it has seen an attempt to set fire to companies providing support to Ukraine. The ministry added that “attempts to damage Starlink equipment have recently occurred in other countries as well.”
Attempted sabotage of Starlink infrastructure is not a recent development, though. British authorities, for instance, determined that Russian intelligence was behind a March 2024 arson attack targeting a London warehouse storing Starlink equipment bound for Ukraine.
“Neither space nor our societies are sanctuaries,” US Army Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told Business Insider. “Fortunately, NATO has strategies for countering threats to both, and for defending the alliance.”
NATO leadership and European Union officials have said the hybrid campaign won’t derail support for Ukraine.
“As the threat level climbs, so must Europe’s preparedness,” Christian Wigand, the EU’s lead foreign affairs and security policy spokesperson, told Business Insider. “Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine,” he said. “This will not happen.”
SpaceX in the crosshairs
Although the sabotage attempts in Poland and Lithuania targeted Starlink equipment at sites run by third parties, not by SpaceX directly, the incidents are a sign of how the company and Starlink are becoming increasingly entangled in the war between Ukraine and Russia and Moscow’s hybrid operations against the West.
That entanglement is turning SpaceX’s lucrative connectivity business into a military and political target.
Starlink accounted for over 60% of SpaceX’s revenue last year and has been the funding engine for the company’s cash-burning artificial intelligence and rocket ventures.
In SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call this week, the company reported that government and enterprise revenues were up 91% year over year, and executives told investors they expect this revenue stream to eventually exceed income from selling Starlink terminals to consumers.
As SpaceX contends with Starlink infrastructure becoming a target of hybrid Russian warfare, the company and its leadership are also facing controversies from the war in Ukraine that put that business at risk.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink, was limited without warning, complicating operations.
Ukrainian defense ministry sources told Business Insider that Starshield was restricted at speeds above 100 miles per hour, disrupting the Starlink-equipped drones that have become a crucial part of Ukraine’s war machine, with some Ukrainian and foreign officials initially blaming SpaceX and Musk.
Musk redirected concerns in a social media post, saying that Starshield is operated by the US government and that the president and the Pentagon are responsible for such decisions. A senior US official told Business Insider last week that President Donald Trump did not order the Starshield restrictions.
Multiple media outlets have since reported that Musk ordered the disruption. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
This incident has sparked calls from European officials for the EU to divest from Starlink in favor of local alternatives not controlled by Musk or the US.
Christophe Grudler, a member of the European Parliament, wrote to EU leaders urging them to accelerate development of IRIS2, a European rival to Starlink that is set to begin satellite deployments in 2029, while other lawmakers also called on Europe to reduce its reliance on US tech.
Europe is not alone in seeking alternatives. In an interview with The New York Times in September, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that Canada would “diversify away” from Starlink in favor of a locally developed satellite network. He pointed to previous instances of Starlink access in Ukraine being throttled or disrupted.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Zelenskyy said the limits on Starlink in Ukraine had made it clear that Europe needs to develop its own alternatives, and fast.
“All of Europe has seen that it can be controlled from the United States, regardless of agreements or contracts, that Starlink speeds can be restricted,” said Ukraine’s president.
“That’s why the Europeans are now raising the question of alternatives themselves. They’re already making progress, and they’ll succeed in this area,” he added. Such an outcome could pose a major threat to SpaceX’s ambitions to sell Starlink and Starshield to governments worldwide.
In the meantime, Starlink remains largely unrivaled, and Ukraine continues to face service restrictions, while Europe faces the threat of repeated hybrid attacks on Starlink infrastructure.
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