A strong confrontation between Poland’s Foreign Minister and Ilon Musk over the use of the Starlink satellite system by Ukraine occurred on Sunday, which escalated when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio intervened in the dispute.

Radoslav Sikorski said that Poland, which covers the cost of Starlink for Ukraine, could look for other providers if Musk decided to interrupt the service for the country affected by the war. His statement came in response to Musk comments on X, where he said that “the entire Ukrainian Front line would collapse” if the network was turned off.

The minister added that the Polish Ministry of Digitization is paying about $ 50 million a year for Ukraine access to the system.

“Beyond the moral issue of threatening the victim of an attack, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” Sikorski told X, the social networking platform owned by Musk.

Sikorski’s response triggered Rubio’s reaction, who wrote that his Polish counterpart “is simply devising things” and that “no one has threatened to cut Ukraine from Starlink”. Rubio went on to say that Poland should “say thank you, because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war for a long time and the Russians would now be on the Poland border.”

Rubio’s comments were welcomed by Musk, who described the Polish diplomat as a “little man” and told him to “stumble”. Poland pays “an infinite part of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink, “Musk wrote.

Sikorski thanked Rubio in his subsequent post “for the confirmation that the brave soldiers of Ukraine can be based on the vital internet service provided jointly” from the US and Poland.

The heated controversy comes as US President Donald Trump has withdrawn his support for Ukraine, including suspension of military aid and interrupting information exchange.

European Union leaders recently met in Brussels at an extraordinary summit to increase defense spending, and the area has begun to seek an alternative to Starlink. However, Ukraine’s detachment from the service may not be easy, as it requires time and money.

However, Ilon Musk said in a post on X on Sunday that, no matter how much he disagrees with Ukraine’s policy, Starlink will never turn off his terminals.

“We would never do that or use it as a negotiating paper,” Musk said.