Elon Musk 'ordered his Starlink satellites in Ukraine to be shut down' as defenders launched attack on Putin troops

Daily Mail​

26-07-2025

Elon Musk allegedly ordered Starlink to cut internet services in parts of Ukraine as its troops mounted a crucial counteroffensive just months after the Russian invasion began.
Musk gave an order that led to a communications blackout, causing the attack to fail, as Ukrainian troops attempted to regain Kherson in September 2022, according to Reuters, who spoke with three people familiar with the command.
The order severely diminished Kyiv 's trust in Starlink, the satellite internet service Musk provided early in the war to help Ukraine's military maintain connection in the battlefield.
Staff at the American tech firm are said to have deactivated at least 100 Starlink terminals after receiving instructions from the billionaire, who told a senior engineer at California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage.
It shocked Starlink employees because it allowed Musk to 'take the outcome of a war into his own hands', one of the sources familiar with the command said.
The blackout also affected other areas seized by Russia, including some of Donetsk.
Although Ukraine reclaimed Kherson in November 2022, Musk's order directly contributed to their failure when they launched their earlier mission.
Ukrainian troops suddenly faced a communications blackout, causing soldiers to panic.
Drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets, according to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, and two others who experienced Starlink failure near the front lines.
Troops therefore failed to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson.
The encirclement stalled entirely, said the military official in an interview. 'It failed.'
It is the first known instance of the billionaire actively shutting off Starlink coverage over a battlefield during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The decision to cut the network is thought to have come from Musk's fears that advances by Ukraine might have provoked a Russian nuclear retaliation.
A spokesman for SpaceX, the aerospace company that owns Starlink, told Reuters the account of the incident is 'inaccurate'.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence has been approached for comment.
The account contravenes Musk's narrative of how he has handled Starlink services during the war.
In March, in a post on X, the American wrote: 'We would never do such a thing.'
'To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals,' he added.
Musk did not respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
Starlink continues to provide service to Ukraine, and its military relies on it for some connectivity.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly expressed gratitude to Musk for Starlink earlier this year.
It also provides customers with internet access in remote and unreliable locations across the world.
Zelensky uses the network to transmit broadcasts to the nation and it is also used to allow Ukrainians to speak to relatives.
Musk has previously boasted of Starlink's importance to Kyiv. 'My Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army,' he wrote on X in March. 'Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.
It is the world's largest satellite operator with 8,000 in orbit and gives Musk enormous geopolitical power with political leaders, governments and militaries worldwide.
Some Western militaries, including Britain's armed forces, are using Starlink.
Britain began using it for 'welfare purposes', including for personal communications for troops, in 2022.
The Ministry of Defence said it has fewer than 1,000 Starlink terminals and doesn't employ them for sensitive military communications.
Spain's navy is also using Starlink, but only for recreation and leisure of troops.
Musk was previously accused of switching off the network in Ukraine, in the biography of billionaire author Walter Isaacson.
Musk believed a planned Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels in the Crimean port of Sevastopol could prompt nuclear retaliation, Isaacson wrote.
The American billionaire denied a shutdown and Isaacson later admitted his account was inaccurate.
As of April 2025, Kyiv has more than 50,000 Starlink terminals circling the globe.
The accusations also raise questions about the unchecked influence of Musk, an unelected billionaire, on global politics.
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho said Musk's 'current global dominance exemplifies the dangers of concentrated power in unregulated domains', in a debate in the House of Lords earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, wrote on X that 'if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers'.
Poland pays for much of Ukraine's Starlink connectivity alongside the US and Germany.
SpaceX is the first company to establish an extensive network of communication satellites in low-Earth orbit, a region of space that is closer to the planet than areas where satellites have historically resided.