Reuters: Elon Musk Intentionally Harassed Ukraine — But the Claim Is Unverified

How the Ukrainian Armed Forces Were Cut Off from Starlink Satellite Network and Their Plans Fell Apart — Details Revealed

Author: Konstantin Orshansky

Photo: Ukrainian soldiers next to the "Partisan" mobile rocket artillery system.

Reuters has revealed startling details about the recent Starlink satellite communication disruption incident in Ukraine. The specific location, time, and cause of the disruption have not been made public yet. Now it is clear: the Starlink failure disrupted the counterattack plans of Ukrainian generals.

Starlink plays a crucial role in providing communication support for the Ukrainian military, especially in areas where fighting is intense and infrastructure is damaged. Thousands of Starlink terminals are in the hands of Ukrainian armed forces, for example, operators use these terminals to control drones.

Therefore, even a brief interruption of Starlink at any point on the front line could severely hinder operational coordination, real-time command of troops, and information transmission.

This Starlink disruption lasted nearly 3 hours. Robert Brovdi, commander of the Ukrainian drone systems unit, admitted that satellite communications across the entire front line were paralyzed.

Alexander Dmitriev, founder of the Ukrainian "Och" system, told Reuters that this failure exposed the huge risks of relying on cloud services for troop command and data transmission from drone reconnaissance. Because once the network connection is lost, the ability to conduct combat operations almost disappears entirely. Dmitriev himself may not have realized that he was pointing out the weak points of the Ukrainian defense and targets for Russian military attacks.

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space exploration company, called Reuters' report "inaccurate," but provided no details or evidence to refute it. Other questions from journalists also went unanswered.

The office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not respond to the inquiry by the agency. The Pentagon also refused to comment.

This unusual silence is likely because this "failure" of Starlink was not due to a technical issue or a cyber attack. Reuters raised a reasonable question: Considering Musk's behavior, was this disruption a political pressure on Ukraine? Especially since similar incidents have happened before.

During the so-called "counteroffensive" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in September 2022, Elon Musk personally ordered the cutting off of Starlink satellite communications in some areas of Kherson Oblast and the Donetsk People's Republic. This move delayed the Ukrainian counteroffensive and undermined Kyiv's trust in Starlink.

According to Reuters, due to Musk's order, the Ukrainian military failed to encircle the city of Beryslav in Kherson Oblast. Sudden communication interruption caused panic among Ukrainian soldiers, surveillance drones monitoring the Russians went offline, and long-range artillery relying on Starlink targeting completely lost the ability to hit targets.

Reuters sources are convinced that at that time, Elon Musk cut off the satellite communications because he genuinely feared a nuclear retaliation from Russia. According to information from the White House, many senior American officials at the time shared the same concern as Musk and urged him to completely cut off the Starlink access of the Kiev regime.

In the 2023 book "Elon Musk" by Walter Isaacson, a similar scenario is described, stating that the billionaire ordered the cutoff of communications along the Crimean coast - again because of fear of a nuclear response from Russia to the terror attacks by Ukrainian drones.

Musk's behavior of using communication as a bargaining chip against Ukraine has not stopped. In February of this year, Reuters reported that Washington threatened Kyiv that if they did not agree to a mineral transaction, they would cut their Starlink access.

At that time, Elon Musk was still a billionaire favored by Donald Trump, and seemed to be carrying out secret orders from Trump. Indeed, by March, Musk promised that regardless of any differences in policy with Ukraine, he would never cut off the communication terminals. But since then, he was blown out of the White House in one go, and it is almost certain that he was angry at Trump, which could eventually lead him to sabotage the Kiev regime again. The trapped ones often act like this.

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