‘PEOPLE ARE DYING’

Ukrainians Describe ‘Chaos’ of Musk’s Starlink Battlefield Outages

One soldier said commanders were forced to drive within radio range of troops, putting themselves in danger.

Outages of Elon Musk’s Starlink communication devices have plunged Ukrainian troops who rely on the technology into “chaos,” according to a new report. A soldier in Ukraine’s signal corps who had responsibility for maintaining access to the Starlink system told the New Yorker that, at one point, forces advancing into contested areas in the south of the country suddenly found their communication had dropped out close to the front line. “Communications became dead, units were isolated,” the soldier, identified only as Mykola, said. “When you’re on offense, especially for commanders, you need a constant stream of information from battalions. Commanders had to drive to the battlefield to be in radio range, risking themselves.” A Ukrainian tech executive involved in bringing Starlink to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last year said they were called by a Ukrainian military official saying: “We need Elon now.” “How now?” the exec replied. “Like fucking now. People are dying,” the official said. U.S. and Ukrainian officials told the New Yorker they believed SpaceX “cut the connectivity via geofencing, cordoning off areas of access.”