The president's veto will cost 10 million złoty. This is about Starlink for Ukraine.

• On Monday, August 25, President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the amendment to the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens.
• The law was the legal basis for Poland to maintain satellite internet in Ukraine. The veto means that Starlink subscription fees will only be available until the end of September.
• The Ministry of Digital Affairs must also begin withdrawing receivers from Ukraine. This will cost at least 10 million PLN.

"I can't imagine a better gift for Putin's forces than cutting off Ukraine's internet," Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski wrote on the website. This is a response to the presidential veto. It means the end of Poland's funding for satellite internet. Without amendments, the government has only until the end of September to fund subscriptions. It must also begin a campaign to recover the terminals.

How many Starlinks for Ukraine is Poland financing?

Starlink Poland has donated nearly 30,000 terminals to Ukraine since the Russian attack on Kyiv. Satellite internet supports connectivity in schools and hospitals there, among other places. The last 5,000 devices arrived in April. As reported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, the allies have donated a total of 50,000 devices. Between 2022 and 2024, Poland spent nearly PLN 300 million on subscriptions .

As Russians systematically destroyed Ukraine's telecommunications infrastructure, Starlinks became crucial to maintaining connectivity. The portable terminals connect to satellites launched into orbit by Elon Musk 's SpaceX.

Presidential veto suspends Starlink funding from September

The current law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens assumes that all aid programs, including the maintenance of the Starlink system, have an expiration date of the end of September 2025. The Sejm wanted to extend its validity until March 4, 2026.

However, the presidential veto means that subscriptions can no longer be financed. Unofficially, we're hearing that the Ministry of Digital Affairs is in a tizzy—the legal department is frantically examining the current options. In the worst-case scenario, a decision to terminate the contract with SpaceX will have to be made within five days (the standard notice period is one month).

However, officials assure that they will sit down with SpaceX to negotiate, perhaps the conditions will be relaxed.

Poland only lent Starlinks to Ukraine. What's next?

The subscription fee isn't the only problem, though. Bringing the terminals to Poland will also be a challenge – the agreement with the Ukrainian side stipulates that the devices are merely loaned. Now, they must be recovered. The agreement we saw stipulates that the Starlink devices, which "will not be destroyed in the course of military operations," must be returned to Poland .

The Ministry of Digital Affairs estimates the cost of bringing them to Poland at PLN 10 million.

- We did not assume that the legal basis that allows the purchase of Starlinks would be vetoed - admits our source at MC.

And that's not all, because Poland has also created and maintains data embassies, i.e., backup copies of Ukrainian tax data. Funding for these, too, will have to be discontinued.

We have asked the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Affairs for comment on this matter. We are awaiting a response.

President Nawrocki is to present his own draft amendment to the act

The aid system for Ukraine was created by Mateusz Morawiecki's government. The Starlink and data embassy solutions were devised by Janusz Cieszyński, then Minister of Digital Affairs and now a PiS MP.

When asked for a comment, the politician argues that the entire situation is the coalition's fault.

"Everyone knew that this bill would combine highly controversial issues with those that raise no doubts. The president has shown he won't participate in such a game," he says. Cieszyński also notes that the president will present his own draft amendment to the bill.

Indeed, Karol Nawrocki's law firm published a graphic announcing this. However, among the announced solutions, there's no mention of Starlinks or data embassies.

We asked the Chancellery of the President whether the new project would allow for further financing of the communications system, but we had not received a response by the time of this article's publication.