Anna Hartz
People on the front lines of a war depend on steady communication.
Steady communication can decide how fast a unit reacts, how safely drones fly, and whether soldiers can call for support in time. When that connection suddenly disappears, the entire rhythm of the battlefield changes. That is what happened this week after a new measure from SpaceX cut off unauthorized access to Starlink across the front in Ukraine.
Frantic Messages About Starlink
Early on Feb. 5, Elon Musk reshared a link from Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry, reports the Kyiv Independent. The post explained how to properly register a Starlink terminal inside the country. Soon after, Russian channels on social media started sharing frantic messages about Starlink units shutting down all at once.
Three Ukrainian commanders told the Kyiv Independent that they intercepted Russian complaints about terminals failing across several sectors. Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, an electronic warfare specialist and now an advisor to Defense Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, said Russian units had been hit hard. In his words, the problem was not small. It was a catastrophe.
Russian milbloggers echoed that tone. One channel wrote that assault groups near Kupiansk would suffer the most because they would lose their only reliable link to the outside world. Reports from Ukrainian units said the impact on Russian activity varied by region. An officer in the 3rd Army Corps said Russian forces in his area were “cut off completely,” which could force them to slow down until they found other ways to communicate.
Claims of Outages
Frontline drone operators noticed the change as well. A commander in the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade said the loss of Russian Starlink access might only buy Ukraine a few weeks of reduced pressure. Others stressed that Russian attacks had slowed but had not stopped.
Some Russian channels claimed that Ukrainian units were also dealing with outages. Beskrestnov said there were issues for Ukrainian soldiers who had not yet registered their private devices, but the process was moving forward.
Ukraine’s government has been working with SpaceX to shut down Russia’s access through a new registration system integrated into the Diia app. Starlink is not active inside Russia, but it still works across parts of occupied territory. Both sides rely heavily on the service.
Russia even mounted Starlink terminals on some Shahed drones to keep them connected deep inside Ukraine. Now those links are breaking, and the effects are already spreading across the front.
