Elon Musk hit back at ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, saying SpaceX's Starlink is supporting Ukraine but won't be used to start WWIII

• Elon Musk's SpaceX banned Ukraine from using its Starlink internet service for military drones.
• Ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly criticized Musk on Twitter for this.

Elon Musk on Sunday lashed out at a former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly over restrictions Starlink recently made in Ukraine over worries their service could contribute to the war's escalation.

SpaceX said in recent weeks that Ukraine can't use its Starlink internet service for military drones, such as to pilot drones, and has taken steps to prevent this, per Reuters.

Kelly tagged Musk in a tweet on Saturday, asking him to "restore the full functionality" of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites in Ukraine. Although SpaceX has limited Ukraine's ability to use Starlink for some military purposes, such as the drones Ukraine is believed to have used against Russian bases, the service appears to still be used for many military purposes as well as for commercial use.

"Defense from a genocidal invasion is not an offensive capability. It's survival. Innocent lives will be lost. You can help," Kelly tweeted.

Musk told Kelly he was smart enough to "not swallow media & other propaganda bs." He called Starlink the "communication backbone" of Ukraine, "especially at the frontlines."

"But we will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3," Musk added.

In a separate tweet, Musk said Starlink terminals are designed for private use, not military use, "but we have not exercised our right to turn them off."

He said SpaceX was trying to do the right thing, but this was an "extremely difficult moral question." The company has not confirmed how it has limited Ukraine's ability to use SpaceX for military purposes.

Kelly and SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Ukrainian citizens and troops have used Starlink to get online since Musk activated the service in the country and sent over thousands of internet kits after Russia's invasion in February 2022.

Starlink's terms of service say the service is "not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry or other comparable end-uses." The Ukrainian military has reportedly used Starlink for a variety of purposes like communications, feeds from drones, and targeting for long-range weapons like missiles.

In a Monday tweet, Kelly claimed "Credible first person reports from the frontlines indicate Starlink is being restricted even for military comm. Precision strike in defense of sovereignty is not escalatory."

Insider could not immediately determine what type of military communications Kelly claimed had been restricted.

The Times of London reported in March 2022 that a Ukrainian drone unit was using Starlink to help destroy Russian tanks and trucks at night. One soldier told a British reporter in April that the satellite service had "changed the war in Ukraine's favor."

Musk has previously tweeted about Starlink being for "peaceful use only" and most recently said the company will not allow it to be used in long-range drone strikes. SpaceX's COO Gwynne Shotwell said Wednesday the company never intended for Starlink to be "weaponized" in the war "but the Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement."

In response, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted Thursday that SpaceX has to choose to support either Kyiv or Russia in the war.

Correction: February 15, 2023 — Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this story misidentified Scott Kelly's job. He has never served in the US Senate. His brother, Mark Kelly, is a Democratic senator from Arizona.