“They are like blind kittens,” a Ukrainian General Staff commander tells POLITICO.

“They are like blind kittens,” a Ukrainian General Staff commander tells POLITICO.

Two days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink verification and blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine, the pace of Russia’s offensive appears to be slowing, a Ukrainian military official told POLITICO.

“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    3 hours ago

    https://dronexl.co/2026/01/31/spacex-starlink-speed-limit-russian-drones/

    Serhiy Beskrestnov, known by his call sign “Flash,” is the advisor on defense technology to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the same analyst who identified the Starlink connection to the train attack earlier this week.

    Beskrestnov’s thread revealed a secondary challenge that is less dramatic but possibly more important for the long-term solution. Ukraine needs to collect complete information on all Starlink terminals in use across the Armed Forces, and soldiers have been reluctant to cooperate.

    The problem is straightforward. Many soldiers use volunteer-provided or personally purchased Starlink terminals. These aren’t on any official inventory. Soldiers fear that reporting them to their commanders will result in confiscation, failure to replace them, or other bureaucratic headaches. Beskrestnov was blunt about this, acknowledging that previous attempts to catalog military Starlink use had failed for exactly these reasons.

    This matters because any whitelist system only works if you know which terminals belong to friendly forces. Of the estimated 200,000 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine, fewer than half were procured through official government channels, according to a December 2025 analysis by Militarnyi. The rest exist in a legal gray zone of private purchases, volunteer donations, and foreign sourcing.

    Beskrestnov promised to find a way to gather this information that earns soldiers’ trust. He also stressed that SpaceX is directly involved in the process and is actively assisting specialists from the Ministry of Defence.