Musk cuts Starlink access for Russian forces – giving Ukraine an edge

bbc.com

12 points·dabinat··5 comments

It is actually double whammy by pure coincidence (or Ukrainian intelligence knew something) - Russians were poked in the eye by losing Starlink, which is not great but also not only way to get internet connection. However then Russian government banned and blocked Telegram, WhatsApp which are used for communication between lowest ranking soldiers and command.

So now Russian frontline is blinded and disorganized which will take few weeks to fix. Until then Ukrainians are having the advantage.

Couldn't we have done that four years ago? This is actually a serious question, why only now?

Russia is sanctioned, SpaceX doesn't sell terminals to Russia or their military forces.

SpaceX now actively works to identify nodes in use in Ukraine believed to be used by the Russian forces or non-state actors working for Russia. It terminates their service.

What you claimed SpaceX is doing is what they did in the past.

This is something newer and more effective.

Starlink hasn't been working in Russia, an aggressor state, for a long time. The issue here is the shutdown of Russian terminals over Ukraine, which are illegally brought into Russia and then flown to Ukraine on drones carrying bombs. Now, Ukrainians register all their terminals, and unregistered ones are not connected. The Russians are working to get a Ukrainian recruit to pay someone to register a terminal in their name, so they can fly from Russia to Ukraine and detonate something. Several such spies have already been arrested.

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