Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has defended his Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, after he was criticised by the country’s opposition party for sparring with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk on X.
Tusk said Sikorski had “calmly” explained the “Polish raison d’état to officials from another country” and criticised the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party for going after Sikorski.
Sikorski, Rubio and Musk sparred on Sunday in a series of X posts over the use of the South African-born billionaire’s Starlink satellite system in Ukraine.
Sikorski commented on a post made by Musk where he mentioned turning off the system which provides high-speed internet to remote or crisis areas, such as war zones.
The foreign minister said that turning off Starlink in Ukraine would result in a search for other suppliers and noted that the Polish Digitalisation Ministry funds half of the 42,000 Starlink terminals in the country, costing around $50 million (€46m) a 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,” Sikorski wrote.
Rubio hit back in a strong rebuke, rejecting claims that Musk would shut down the system and telling Sikorski to “say thank you”.
The exchange culminated in Musk calling Sikorski a “small man”.
“Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” Musk concluded.
PiS was equally scathing of Sikorski, with former government minister Michał Wójcik writing on X, “Poland is ruled by an unserious government that … is insulting the American administration.”
Former Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński suggested someone should “take away Sikorski’s Twitter.”
“Preferably before it leads to the US withdrawing its troops from Poland,” Jabłoński added.
Ukraine ‘an investment in security’
PiS enthusiastically celebrated US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The national-conservative party enjoyed close relations with Trump during his first term, when they were also in power.
Tusk directly defended Sikorski from comments made by PiS, also writing later on X that, “True leadership means respect for partners and allies. Even for the smaller and weaker ones. Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”
The country’s foreign ministry told Polish Press Agency that “this discussion has perhaps made the American public aware that the United States does not pay for everything …and that Ukraine is not so much a loss as an investment in security”.
Starlink terminals are key to Ukraine’s army operations and have been in place in the country since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Despite Rubio and Musk’s insistence that the services would not be shut off, the European Commission is looking into securing alternative satellite communications services for Ukraine amid concerns Musk could use access to the system as a bargaining chip to pressure Kyiv into a peace deal.
A possible rare-earth minerals deal between the US and Ukraine is reportedly on the table as the two sides meet in Saudi Arabia for peace talks this week.
