On February 4, pro-war military bloggers reported that Russia’s frontline troops had lost access to Starlink satellite Internet. While Ukrainian forces have had official access to Starlink since the start of the full-scale invasion, many Russian units have relied on contraband devices as a key element of their battlefield communications. Until now, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has appeared willing to turn a blind eye to Russia’s unauthorized use of Starlink. Previous system failures that were mistaken for targeted outages turned out to be false alarms, and Ukrainian officials warned that cutting off Starlink access in Russian-occupied territories would be “catastrophic” for Kyiv’s frontline drone warfare. This time, however, the outage is not accidental: it comes after Russian troops started equipping their own drones with Starlink en masse and carrying out attacks on the Ukrainian army’s rear positions. Now, Kyiv and SpaceX face the challenge of engineering a Starlink blackout for the Russian side without hampering the Ukrainian military.
Other than the title being the most meaningful comment in this matter, this article explains the broader context of starlink on the front and possible alternatives.
It doesn’t answer the question, possibly because it does not have the evidence to confirm that it’s because the Kremlin now can afford some other alternative. Time will tell.
Wait, remind me who funded over $250 million for Trump to win in the Nov 2024 elections, and subsequently went scorched earth on USAID with his new DOGE department - literally disbanding the entire agency in 2025?
It seems almost like there is a lot of money to be made in the Ukraine-Russia war, and being one of the main guys who pulls the strings gives you a huge amount of leverage.
Musk has been doing this since the start of the war. Playing like hes a general, or a senior military policy official. Its for personal gain.
Remember when Elon refused to give Starlink access to Ukraine troops over Crimea while attempting to retake territory, and disabled Starlink on Ukraine equipment on multiple offences to Russian positions, directly acknowledging he was playing god over which military actions were OK and which were not for Ukraine?
Remember in 2024 when USAID’s Inspector-General notified Congress they were launching an investigation into USAID’s establishing oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government, after many allegations of fraud and abuse?
Wait, remind me who funded over $250 million for Trump to win in the Nov 2024 elections, and subsequently went scorched earth on USAID with his new DOGE department - literally disbanding the entire agency in 2025?
It seems almost like there is a lot of money to be made in the Ukraine-Russia war, and being one of the main guys who pulls the strings gives you a huge amount of leverage.
Fuuuck. There it is. I’d been wondering why the hell USAID garnered such ire, but I’d missed that. Now it makes sense. Thanks.