Vladislav Grigoriev17:58, 25.07.25

At least a hundred Starlink terminals were then disabled.

In the fall of 2022, billionaire and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk ordered the operation of Starlink satellite communications terminals in Ukraine to be restricted. At that time, the Ukrainian Defense Forces were conducting a counteroffensive to recapture some of the territories that the Russian Federation had seized. This was reported by Reuters , citing sources.

The agency’s sources said that in 2022, Musk gave an order to a senior engineer at SpaceX’s California office to restrict access to Starlink satellite communications in some regions of Ukraine, including Kherson.

“We have to do this,” Starlink engineer Michael Nicholls was quoted as saying to his colleagues after receiving the order.

At least 100 Starlink terminals were disabled at the time, the sources said, with their hexagonal cells blacked out on the company’s internal coverage map.Read also:

The agency emphasized that this led to the Ukrainian military finding itself in information isolation on the battlefield. Due to the shutdown of terminals, some Ukrainian drones also stopped working, and artillery units that used Starlink to target encountered serious difficulties.

In addition, this move resulted in Ukrainian troops being unable to encircle Russian positions in the city of Berislav, which is located near Kherson, the agency added.

(C)UNIAN 2025