SpaceX restricts Starlink in Ukraine, disrupting army missions

SpaceX has restricted the operation of Starlink terminals in Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops only found out after the fact. “Our defense forces received no warning about this restriction, which led to the disruption of several missions,” Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram. Elon Musk’s company has not yet responded to the reports of restrictions.

The outages were also confirmed by a source in the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, which is currently fighting Russia on the southeastern front, according to the Reuters news agency. Serhiy Sternenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s previous defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, also spoke about the restriction. He claims, without providing any evidence, that SpaceX probably took the step at the request of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Strikes without warning

The issue is being discussed against the backdrop of missile attacks on Kyiv for two nights in a row, about which Ukraine received no information from Western allies. This happened shortly after Trump threatened Zelensky with cutting off intelligence sharing if Ukraine failed to observe the energy ceasefire that Trump had announced and that Russia is ignoring.

After Monday’s strike, the US president said the United States was still providing intelligence to the Ukrainians. According to communications between American and Ukrainian military personnel, a “failure” occurred during Monday’s Russian attack. This suggests the missile launch may have gone undetected, for example because of poor weather conditions.

Distrust of Washington is growing

The unannounced strikes on Kyiv came at a time when Ukrainians were already wary of Washington. The reason is Trump’s deal with Moscow on supplying oil to the American and global markets, which is meant to lower fuel prices ahead of the November congressional elections. In recent weeks Trump has also consistently and wrongly blamed Ukraine for high fuel prices, even though the main cause is the US war with Iran, which he himself started.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz