Elon Musk attacks 'false' Reuters report of threat to Starlink in Ukraine amid minerals negotiations

Elon Musk, the SpaceX billionaire now with close ties to US president Donald Trump as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has shut down a report from Reuters that American negotiators could cut Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite internet if the country doesn’t reach a deal on critical minerals.

The Trump administration has since been accused of “extortion” as a result of Reuters’ reporting, which says Starlink was brought up in negotiations over rare earth minerals the Republican wants “the equivalent of like $500 billion worth” in the event of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

However, taking to Twitter/X on Saturday, Musk branded the report “false” and accused Reuters of “lying”.

“They are second only to AP (Associated Propaganda) as legacy news liars,” he wrote.

Trump and the AP have come to blows this week over access to presidential events, with the latter suing the White House on the grounds of freedom of speech because it refuses to change its house style in light of an executive order.

The US president wants the Gulf of Mexico to be referred to as the ‘Gulf of America’, but the AP has said it will “refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen” in order to be “easily recognizable to all audiences”.

Musk followed up this tweet by sharing a text graphic of the word ‘Reuters’, made up of the word ‘lies’ repeated over and over.

In response, one Twitter/X user commented Musk’s definition of ‘lies’ concerns the media writing something “Musk and Trump do not like”:

Another account responded by saying it’s “funny” Musk is taking issue with a news organisation “that no one even cares about because of how unpartisan it is”:

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