Mineral Water Issue Becomes Treasure, Donald Trump Threatens to Revoke Ukraine's Starlink Access

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 KOMPUTER JADUL-, The United States (US) will plan to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Several sources familiar with the matter said this happened because Kyiv rejected Washington's proposal related to minerals.

Reporting from Reuters on Sunday (23/2/2025), the source said Ukraine's access to SpaceX's Starlink was raised in discussions between US and Ukrainian officials after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected an initial proposal from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

During the meeting, Ukraine was told that they would immediately shut down the service if they did not reach an agreement on critical minerals, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss the highly confidential negotiations.

"Ukraine uses Starlink. They consider it their North Star," the source said. "Losing Starlink ... would be a huge blow."

Starlink itself provides critical internet connectivity for war-torn Ukraine and its military.

The issue was raised again on Thursday during a meeting between Zelensky and Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine.

Zelensky has rejected demands from President Donald Trump’s administration for $500 billion in Ukrainian mineral wealth to repay Washington for its wartime aid, saying the US had offered no specific security guarantees.

Zelensky had earlier rejected a detailed US proposal last week that would have seen Washington and US companies receive 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals, including graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, a key component in electric car batteries.

Rifts have since emerged between the leaders. Trump denounced Zelensky as “an unelected dictator” on Wednesday after Zelensky said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble, a response to the US president’s assertion that Ukraine started the war.

On Friday, Zelensky said US and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expected it to be signed soon.

Musk quickly sent thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukraine to replace communications services that Russia destroyed after its invasion in February 2022. Musk, who was then hailed as a hero in Ukraine, would later restrict access at least once earlier in the fall of 2022 as he became more critical of Kyiv's handling of the war.