Russia’s pro-invasion bloggers report mass disruption to Starlink satellite terminals in occupied Ukraine
Some Russian military personnel operating in occupied Ukraine have reported disruptions to Starlink satellite communication terminals. Journalist Ivan Filippov monitors pro-invasion bloggers on Telegram and says the outage complaints began early on Tuesday, February 4.
Russian “war correspondents” Tatyana Kruglova and Roman Saponkov were among the first on Telegram to report the Starlink disruptions. According to Saponkov, “about 10 percent of all terminals across the front were blocked.” The Z-channel Tupi4ok Dizaynera reported that “a lot of dishes were suddenly blocked, but not all of them.” The bloggers did not specify where exactly Russian forces have encountered disrupted Starlink access.
Starlink is a global satellite system launched in 2019 by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It is designed to provide high-speed satellite Internet in areas with unreliable or expensive connectivity. The Ukrainian military has actively used Starlink satellite communication, as SpaceX provided this technology to Kyiv in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russian forces use Starlink terminals in occupied territories of Ukraine, acquiring the devices on the black market.