The internet terminals of Elon Musk's Starlink company have been used without authorization by Russian troops to improve their communications on the battlefront and launch drone attacks against Ukraine. Its disconnection, announced by kyiv and confirmed by multiple Russian bloggers, constitutes a blow to the Kremlin's operational capacity on the front line of war. Ukraine says Moscow's operations "have stopped in many areas."

First modification: 02/06/2026 - 19:56

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Since Thursday, the Russian Army has suffered a blackout of the Starlink company's satellite internet, which it had been using without authorization to boost the advance of its troops into Ukrainian territory, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Pro-Russian military bloggers – called Z-bloggers – have also reported a major failure in the internet terminals of Elon Musk's company. "The Starlinks have been 'down' along the entire front. Those of the enemy too," wrote blogger Vladimir Románov, author of the Telegram channel Romanov Light, which publishes news and images of the war in Ukraine.

Other channels such as Zapiski Veterana (Notes of a Veteran), Voyenni Osvedomitel (Military Informant) and even Dva Maiora (Two Majors), one of the most prestigious channels, corroborated the news, which they defined as a temporary technical failure.

Russian sites such as 'Newsbash' and the Tsargrad channel collected testimonies from soldiers and war correspondents describing how the terminals stopped working "almost completely" and how attempts to reboot or reconfigure were unsuccessful.

kyiv, which also reported failures in its systems on the front, detailed that it is preparing a "white list" of all terminals in Ukraine so that only the Russian ones are deactivated.

The Ukrainian Government has asked all users of Starlink terminals to register on state platforms. Any unregistered or suspicious devices will be automatically disabled from the network.

"The 'whitelisted' Starlinks are working; Russian terminals have already been blocked," Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who took office last month, wrote on Telegram.

Fedorov asked Musk in 2022, as Minister of Digital Affairs, to activate Starlink coverage in Ukraine and provide terminals to repel the Russian invasion. Since then, Ukrainian troops use tens of thousands of that company's Internet connections to facilitate battlefield communications and to pilot some attack drones.

Serhiy Beskrestnov, advisor to the Defense Minister, called the situation a catastrophe for the Russian military. "The entire command of the troops has collapsed. Assault operations have stopped in many areas," he wrote on Telegram. However, the exact extent of the blackout is difficult to independently verify.

Much more than an internet connection

Kremlin troops have used thousands of Starlink satellite Internet connections without authorization from the company run by Elon Musk, as part of the invasion of Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin ordered almost four years ago.

These connections have allowed them to improve communications on the battle front, which results in greater effectiveness in organizing advances, evacuating wounded and calling for reinforcements.

After the deactivation of the terminals, some Russian troops, mainly in the town of Kupiansk, have been isolated from any contact with the outside world.

The devices have also made it possible to quickly transmit drone videos to coordinate the work of assault groups and bypass internet interference systems.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense detailed that drones equipped with Starlink were much more difficult to neutralize, as they flew at low altitudes, maintained a stable data connection beyond the usual range and allowed operators to correct course in real time at great distances.

Moscow, which cannot access this technology due to sanctions imposed by the invasion of its neighboring country, began illegally importing Starlink internet terminals in 2023, through countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, although the Russian Ministry of Defense has never officially confirmed this fact. Other terminals were seized from the Ukrainian Army during the course of the war.

Although it was not until 2025 that the Russian Ministry of Defense began to massively install these terminals on its Molnia-2, Guerán fixed-wing drones and other unmanned aircraft, which allowed it to gain effectiveness in attacks.

Although Russia has GLONASS, its own satellite navigation system, it is mainly used to direct high-precision bombs, Iskander ballistic missiles, and guide combat aircraft. Elon Musk's platform has served moving targets, which demand more flexible systems.

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Ukraine last week reported approaches with SpaceX to block the use of Starlink terminals, after identifying their incorporation into long-range drones used to hit Ukraine.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Defense Minister, announced that SpaceX had implemented urgent measures to curb the use of its technology in Ukrainian drones, including a speed limitation: if a terminal over Ukrainian territory moves at more than 90 km/h for more than two minutes, it automatically restarts.

Musk sounded confident Sunday that SpaceX's moves to stop Russia's unauthorized use of Starlink would work.

The disconnection of Starlink creates a serious problem for the Russian Army, which still does not have its own effective satellite system for this type of tasks, according to the Russian media 'Kommersant', which is why Moscow has launched a search for alternatives in China and other countries.

With Reuters, EFE and local media

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