Ukrainian military goes blind as Starlink faces global outage, Elon Musk's SpaceX had curtailed satellite internet service in Ukraine earlier too

Starlink's global outage on July 24 led to the Ukrainian military turning blind as it lost most of its major communication links in the midst of a brutal war with Russia. The satellite internet service, a subsidiary of Elon Musk owned SpaceX, has been a lifeline in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022 and the subsequent attacks on the country's infrastructure damaged internet networks.

About three hours after posting about the global outage, Musk's Starlink stated that the issues have been resolved and the internet service is up and running. "The network issue has been resolved, and Starlink service has been restored. We understand how important connectivity is and apologize for the disruption," said Starlink on X.

As soon as the Ukrainian military found out that it was unable to communicate between different defence facilities and units, it stated that its leadership was failing to send messages to the soldiers at the front lines as Starlink terminals were down.Also Read: Türkiye's Tayfun Block 4 hypersonic missile breaks cover, only the second NATO country to have such weapons


Major Robert Yosypovych Brovdi, the commander of the Unmanned Systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was the first Ukrainian officer to point out that Starlink was down. According to Ukraine's news website Suspilny, Starlink terminals stopped working since around 10:20 p.m local time and resumed operations after about two-and-a-half-hours.

Ukraine's units involved in drone operations, which have been extremely effective and devstating against Russian military installations, use Starlink extensively.

It's not only the Ukrainian military which is dependent on Starlink for secure communication links, but the satellite internet connectivity is used by civilian institutions like schools, business organisations and hospitals too.

When did Starlink start operations in Ukraine?

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine and started bombing its infrastructure, the latter approached Elon Musk to activate Starlink access as the country was facing a breakdown in internet and communition networks. Within a few hours of the official request, Musk announced the activation of Starlink in Ukraine along with the installtion of the first terminals.

There are more than 40,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine which are used by its military for secure communication.

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Ukraine's military has used Starlink effectively to increase the capability of its drones and unmanned copters as its forces try to stop the slow but sure advance of Russian troops along the front lines.

Musk and Starlink's relationship with Ukraine

Musk, the world's richest man, in February 2023 announced that SpaceX was curtailing Starlink’s use in Ukraine and the facility could be used ony for communication by the drone operators. He advertised his decision as one taken to prevent "World War III”. However, the restrictions were later lifted and full service restored.

Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, in Sepetember 2023 stated that Starlink was deliberately disabled by Musk in Crimea in 2022 when Ukrainian army was planning to attack the Russia-occupied region and its fleet stationed in the Black Sea.