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Ukraine and SpaceX Cut Off Russian Starlink Access, Disrupting Frontline Operations

Ukraine says the cutoff follows reports of Russian terminals on strike drones.

Overview

  • Kyiv and SpaceX activated a verification whitelist that keeps registered Starlink terminals online in Ukraine and blocks unverified devices used by Russian forces, according to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
  • Ukrainian officials and advisers report degraded Russian command-and-control and fewer assaults in several sectors, though international outlets say the full scale of the disruption has not been independently verified.
  • Some Ukrainian users temporarily lost connectivity pending verification, with authorities directing civilians to register at service centers and promising daily updates as the process expands to online portals for organizations.
  • Elon Musk said SpaceX’s measures to stop unauthorized Russian use have worked, while neither the company nor Ukraine has disclosed technical details of the restrictions for security reasons.
  • Russian military bloggers acknowledged widespread outages and a lack of domestic alternatives, and one prominent state TV host’s call to target satellites drew attention to escalation risks tied to commercial space systems.