Elon Musk's satellite Internet stopped working for the Armed Forces of Ukraine before the ruZZian offensive on Kharkiv.

The russian offensive in northeastern Ukraine was expected for several months, but it still began unexpectedly. Just before the invasion, the Starlink satellite Internet terminals, which are used, among other things, to broadcast a video stream from reconnaissance drones, stopped working at Ukrainian units.

The 125th Territorial Defense Brigade controlled a 40-kilometer section of the border with the Belgorod region and watched through drones as the group was deployed from the russian side. But on the morning of May 10, when the invasion took place, the drone unit was "blinded," writes The Washington Post (WaPo): the brigade lost all video data due to Russian electronic interference.

Communication is provided using Starlink satellite Internet: Elon Musk's company SpaceX provided this connection to Ukraine at the beginning of the war. Subsequently, the Pentagon ordered Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military from SpaceX. The operation of the system is provided by more than 6000 satellites in low Earth orbit.

Starlink devices have completely shut down for the first time since the invasion in February 2022, writes WaPo. "At some point, we went completely blind," the commander of the drone unit of the 125th Brigade with the call sign Artist told the newspaper. "That was the biggest problem: we didn't see them moving, we only talked on the radio or phones where they were still working." The image from the drones, he said, "just disappeared."

Musk explained that with Starlink satellites were "under strong pressure" due to a strong geomagnetic storm on the Sun, which occurred on the evening of May 10 - on the morning of May 11 - after the start of the offensive.

Nonetheless, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have managed to stop the advance of the occupiers.

Source

Not the first time. Musk has reportedly ordered before to turn off Starlink to disrupt planned Ukrainian military attacks "to avoid escalation". Nonetheless Starlink terminals and services are sold to ruZZians especially for use in the war as an investigation of Molfar evidenced.

@freerussia_report