Russia’s Starlink satellite internet terminal in Ukraine has been “cut off”, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said, claiming it disrupted Russian military communications on Thursday.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov said SpaceX is working with Ukraine to update a “whitelist” of approved and verified Starlink terminals, while unapproved Russian systems have been blocked.
“Starlink terminals added to the ‘whitelist’ are functioning. Russian terminals have been blocked,” Fedorov said in a statement on Thursday. “We continue to verify Starlink terminals. The first batch of terminals entered into the ‘whitelist’ have been put into operation.”
A source in the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that as of Thursday evening local time “all Russian Starlinks have been severed” on the front lines.
Under U.S. sanctions, Starlink cannot be sold to or used by Russia. However, analysts and Ukrainian officials warn that Russia is increasingly looking for ways to exploit the system to its advantage. CNN has previously reported on Russia’s installation of the Starlink system on its attack drones, which allows the weapons to bypass Ukraine’s electronic defense systems, disable the drones by jamming GPS and radio signals, and strike deep into the country.
Ukraine has also relied heavily on Starlink since the war began, using it to operate military communications and drones, as well as information systems for public institutions such as hospitals and schools.
Serhii Beskrestnov, adviser to the Defense Minister, said: “The enemy on the front lines is facing not only problems, but disasters. All command and control of the troops has collapsed. Assault operations have been stopped in many areas.”
It comes after Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, which owns Starlink, said earlier this week that the company was taking steps to prevent Russia from “unauthorized” use of its satellite internet. Musk reiterated on Thursday that “if you are in Ukraine, it is important to register your Starlink terminal.”
The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet responded to claims that Starlink was disrupted.
But Russian military bloggers began commenting on the Starlink outage on Wednesday and Thursday, noting the hit to Russia’s frontline internet and communications capabilities.
Boris Rozhin, a pro-Kremlin military blogger, wrote in a question-and-answer post on Telegram that “yes, this will have some impact on internet availability on site” and “yes, there are simply no other options at the moment.” He also claimed that the Russian military was working to bypass the blockade and use other methods to bring high-speed internet to the site.
Another Russian military blog supporting airborne special forces tried to downplay the outage, writing: “Starlink may be down, but backup communications are still there. Radios are working and there is communication between positions.”
Some Starlink equipment used by Ukraine has also reportedly been cut off, but it’s unclear how widespread the outage is as the government continues its whitelisting process.
Tetiana Chornovol, a Ukrainian combat officer, posted on social media that “the shutdown of Starlink has left two of my combat positions without communications,” adding that her unit has since introduced alternative communications systems.
“This works for us,” a Ukrainian drone pilot said in a video posted on Telegram. “We immediately registered our Starlink terminal and everything is fine.”
CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Daria Tarasova-Markina and Sophie Tanno also contributed.
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