Ukrainian soldiers in combat have suddenly had their access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry immediately.
The terminals, which are distributed and managed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are a key component of Ukraine’s military operations and the sudden restrictions on the high-speed terminals on Tuesday evening led to the failure of several combat missions, said an adviser on military technology to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The sudden outage came as Russia launched ballistic missiles at Ukraine without any advance warning from the US for a second night. For years, the US has provided Ukraine with intelligence when strikes were about to take place.
Donald Trump has denied that his administration has cut intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Zelenskyy also indicated that the US was continuing to share intelligence with Ukraine in an interview with NPR aired on Wednesday, but confirmed that military advisers had received threats from the US that intelligence sharing could be limited.
Ukraine did not receive any warning before Russia launched its first barrage of ballistic missiles on Tuesday evening, according to Col Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the air force. But it did receive warnings from “foreign partners” about three subsequent barrages, leaving further confusion about whether or not the US is intentionally withholding intelligence from Ukraine.
SpaceX did not confirm any changes to Starlink’s functionality and it was not immediately clear why the restrictions had been put in place. Terminals travelling at more than 100mph and using a version of Starlink for the military and other national security agencies suddenly lost connectivity, said Serhiy Beskrestnov, in what appeared to be a targeted outage meant to disrupt military operations.
“Our armed forces did not receive a warning about these restrictions and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” said Beskrestnov, who is also a popular military blogger. “It’s clear that this action cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation.”
Limiting Starlink’s access speeds would have a significant effect on Ukraine’s mid-range strike campaign, where it uses the satellite internet system to navigate drones to hit targets behind the front in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. But there have been no reports that access for static Starlink terminals have been cut, meaning critical battlefield communications for soldiers should remain unaffected. The detection of incoming Russian missiles and drones relies on other technologies.
Musk, an ally of Trump, had previously cut off Starlink service to Ukrainian soldiers during an offensive that took a small amount of Russian territory.
Serhii Sternenko, a political activist with close ties to the military, first reported the outage and later said that the speeds at which the loss of connectivity occurred had fallen even lower. “It is likely that the company ‘SpaceX’ resorted to such measures at the request of the Trump administration,” he said. “Ordinary satellite communication terminals are currently operational.”
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Trump has demanded that Ukraine stop striking Russian oil refineries, which he has blamed for the high cost of diesel, although most analysts say that the closure of the strait of Hormuz has had a far larger impact on global energy prices.
Zelenskyy had suggested, though not said, that the US was intentionally withholding intelligence from Ukraine about impending Russian missile strikes.
Russia carried out a massive strike against Ukrainian energy infrastructure late on Tuesday evening, Zelenskyy said, launching 39 ballistic missiles and 120 attack drones against Kyiv and Kharkiv. The strikes hit several power plants and key substations that carry electricity to the capital, including from a major power plant.
“The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale – Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” he said. “Russia does not consider the American president’s statements strong.”
At least 600,000 people were now without power, he said, adding that outages could become even more widespread.
