&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Did Musk order Starlink shutdown to thwart Ukraine’s offensive in 2022? Here’s how SpaceX responds to claims")
As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine enters its fourth year, a report claimed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ordered a brief shutdown of Starlink during Kyiv’s key offensive in 2022. The satellite providing internet service provides connectivity between the troops on the battlefield. Reportedly, following Musk’s order, Ukrainian soldiers faced a communication blackout near the frontlines, which impacted their operation against Russia.
According to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the command, Musk told senior engineers at the California offices of SpaceX, which controls Starlink satellites, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a key region Ukraine was trying to reclaim. The report added that at least a hundred Starlink terminals were deactivated as Ukraine’s drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets.
The Starlink outage resulted in troops failing to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, the administrative centre of the region, the Ukrainian military official and the military advisor said. “The encirclement stalled entirely,” said the official in an interview. “It failed.”
The report further added that it wasn’t clear why and when Musk gave the order, or how long the outage lasted. However, sources told Reuters that they believe the reason behind the order was concerns of a possible nuclear response from Russia.
What did SpaceX say?
In an email to Reuters, Space denied the allegation of Musk ordering a Starlink shutdown during the war in Ukraine. Responding to the reports, a spokesperson for the space organisation described the findings as “inaccurate”. The spokesperson further referred to an older X post by the company’s official handle: “Starlink is fully committed to providing service to Ukraine.”
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When initial reports of the claims surfaced, Musk in March said that Starlink “would never do such a thing.”
The report comes a day after Starlink experienced a massive global outage, which affected thousands. In an X post, Musk apologised for the outage, “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
