The Atlantic: Ukrainian Armed Forces used commercial Starlink despite SpaceX ban

The Ukrainian army used the commercial Starlink communications package for military operations, despite a ban by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

This is reported by The Atlantic magazine in a major investigation based on conversations with more than a dozen American and Ukrainian officials, military personnel, and satellite communications specialists.

As the journalists found, the special military service Starshield accounts for less than 1% of all satellite terminals in the combat zone. Virtually the entire Ukrainian army uses the ordinary commercial Starlink, although the terms of service prohibit its use for military purposes.

It was precisely the violation of this ban that Musk cited to explain the restrictions imposed on Ukraine. He stated that commercial Starlink was never permitted to be used for offensive drone strikes, and that the company has now closed the loophole that allowed this.

Thousands of commercial terminals were purchased for Ukraine by the governments of Poland and Germany.

“Officially they were supposed to be used for humanitarian purposes. But everyone knew they would go to the military,” said a source of the publication who participated in negotiations with SpaceX on behalf of Ukraine.

According to a Ukrainian official, the use of commercial terminals is significantly cheaper and allows their number to be rapidly increased. At the same time, SpaceX for a long time effectively turned a blind eye to the violation of its own rules.

The magazine also found that back in 2022, the use of Starlink for Ukrainian strikes on Russian military personnel caused discontent within SpaceX.

“More and more people felt uncomfortable,” said a former company engineer who participated in the development of the system.

According to him, some SpaceX employees even resigned in protest against the military use of the technology.

As for the consequences of the October blockings, they led to the halt of a number of military operations and the loss of Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea. This was reported to The Atlantic by two sources familiar with the circumstances of one of the operations.

As the publication found, on October 11 a confidential document warning of a possible Starlink shutdown was sent to Ukrainian military personnel. It was prepared by the “People’s Starlink” organization, which helps the Ukrainian Armed Forces purchase and use terminals. The authors of the document urged the military to prepare alternative means of communication and action plans in case the system was disconnected. The worst-case scenario predicted a complete cessation of Starlink operation, which could lead to catastrophic consequences for the Ukrainian army.

Already on October 13, communications disruptions began, which halted some military operations and drone flights.

“Without Starlink the war will stop,” a senior American military officer told journalists, implying the critical dependence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on satellite communications.

Subsequently, communications were restored. Two Ukrainian officers confirmed to journalists that drones with Starlink had again begun carrying out combat missions, including strikes on Russian troops. However, the military fear that Musk could repeat the shutdown at any moment, and that next time it could prove far more prolonged.

At the same time, The Atlantic reports that amid the shutdowns, SpaceX proposed to the Pentagon that it switch to a more expensive contract to restore Ukraine’s access to satellite communications. According to American officials, when the US military approached the company about the Starlink communications disruptions in Ukraine, they were offered to upgrade the contract. The publication suggests that in this way Musk is trying to force Ukraine and its allies to pay for the significantly more expensive military service Starshield instead of ordinary Starlink. The cost of commercial Starlink may be as little as about €27 per month per terminal, whereas Starshield costs up to 25 thousand dollars.

Thus, if SpaceX begins to strictly enforce the ban on military use of ordinary Starlink, Ukraine and its allies will have to either switch to the significantly more expensive service or seek alternative means of communication, which do not yet exist on a comparable scale.

A few days ago, Musk wrote on the social network X that Volodymyr Zelensky himself had admitted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces use Starlink communications for drone strikes. Meanwhile, the Pentagon refuses to investigate the slowing of Starlink and Starshield communications in Ukraine.