Musk Helps Ukraine Hit Russia in Its 'Achilles' Heel'

Russian soldiers on the front lines in Ukraine are suddenly finding their Starlink connections dark, and Moscow's pro-war bloggers say it's no glitch. At Ukraine's request, Elon Musk's SpaceX has tightened control of its satellite internet service, blocking unregistered terminals inside Ukraine and cutting off what analysts say had become an important, if illicit, communications tool for Russian forces, per the New York Times. For months, Russian units had smuggled Starlink terminals to the battlefield, using them for basic connectivity and, more recently, to guide drones that are harder to jam and more accurate, according to Ukrainian officials.

The clampdown appears to have arrived in recent days, when Russian military channels on Telegram began reporting widespread outages on drones and at front-line positions. Musk says it took engineers less than two days to shut down all illicit access, per the Kyiv Post. One blogger warned the move would push units back "a couple of years" to slower, less reliable systems such as wired internet and radio, per the Times. Another called the sudden loss a "serious breach in communications," while yet another deemed the issue Russia's "Achilles' heel," per the Moscow Times.

"This is all very bad, especially given how crucial communications are at the front," one blogger noted. Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the New York Times it was too soon to gauge the full impact, but he noted that Russian complaints suggest the disruption is already being felt. Ukraine's new defense minister, former tech entrepreneur Mykhailo Fedorov, said he pressed SpaceX to act after Russia began integrating Starlink into drones. SpaceX has now limited service in Ukraine to devices on a government-approved "white list" and imposed a speed cap for the terminals of about 45mph, a step intended to hamper use on fast-moving strike drones.

The shift has briefly affected some Ukrainian units and civilians still registering their terminals, but Kyiv says approvals are moving quickly. On Sunday, Musk wrote on X that steps "to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked," and invited Ukraine to say if "more needs to be done." Russian forces, meanwhile, are scrambling to lay fiber-optic lines, fall back on radio links, and work on plans for a homegrown satellite internet network as officials warn that depending on Western technology in wartime is no longer tenable.