A new “white list” from SpaceX is shutting off Russia’s illicit access to Starlink’s satellite internet across the front line.
At shortly before 3:00 a.m. Kyiv time on Feb. 5, Elon Musk retweeted a new guide from Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry for registering a Starlink terminal within UkraSubsequently, a series of alarmed Russian social media posts indicate that Starlink terminals were disconnecting en masse along the front.
Three Ukrainian commanders, speaking to the Kyiv Independent on the condition of anonymity, reported intercepting messages from Russian forces complaining about Starlink terminals failing in large numbers.
Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, a longtime commentator on electronic warfare more recently appointed as advisor to Defense Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, said the “enemy at the front doesn’t have a problem, the enemy has a catastrophe.”
why would a country’s military rely on services from the United States owned by a crazy guy who will flip switches for clout
What replacement services are available? The American service actually works. Making your own would cost an order of magnitude more (as your contractors mysteriously “lose” half the money and bill the defence ministry 10 million roubles for “pens”) and a decade of your time.
Maybe they could hire Chinese firms to do it but I think China has a tendency to keep its military technology to itself.
A big part of russian strategy (both military and political) is turning the wests own tools against it. Its how they manage to have such an outsized degree of political reach despite having the economy of a middle european power.
Because Putin has been ransacking the country for decades and they relied on stolen tech and decades old military equipment to get by.
Of course one can just not have internet also…
That’s because it didn’t. Likely used it for r&r rather than critical infrastructure.
Lol, no. There was downed drone with starlink onboard.
Ok, I have a rope to sell you.