At Ukraine’s Request, Starlink Denies Internet Access to Russian Troops

Nytimes reports that Russian troops fighting in Ukraine were experiencing internet outages on the front after Elon Musk said he had moved to deactivate Starlink for Moscow’s forces and after Ukraine’s defense minister contacted SpaceX to stop unauthorized use. For years Russians had been evading export restrictions to smuggle Starlink devices to the front, and Ukrainian authorities said Russian units used the network this year to direct attack drones that could hit moving targets and evade Ukrainian jamming.

SpaceX implemented a whitelist of registered and verified terminals, a step that locked out contraband Russian devices but also temporarily cut off many Ukrainian civilian and military users still awaiting registration or approval. Russia’s pro-war military bloggers reported that the change rattled units on the front, saying it disrupted command-and-control and forced a return to radios, wired connections and other methods while noting that alternatives capable of restoring high-speed internet would take time.

Russia, Ukraine