{"id":273489,"date":"2026-02-08T07:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273489\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:52:09","slug":"russian-starlink-terminals-deactivated-in-major-battlefield-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273489\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Starlink terminals deactivated in major battlefield blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump indicated he planned to reach out to Elon Musk to speak about providing Starlink internet to people in Iran.<\/p>\n

Ukraine said it has worked with SpaceX to block Starlink internet terminals used by Russian forces, a move Kyiv described as a major setback for Moscow\u2019s battlefield operations.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s military uses tens of thousands of Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and drone operations, according to Reuters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials said they recently discovered Starlink terminals attached to Russian long-range drones, prompting urgent appeals to Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s SpaceX for assistance.<\/p>\n

ZELENSKYY ANNOUNCES NEXT ROUND OF TALKS WITH US, RUSSIA AS UKRAINE AIMS FOR ‘REAL AND DIGNIFIED END TO THE WAR<\/a><\/p>\n

Russian troops have relied on unauthorized Starlink terminals for secure communications since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.<\/p>\n

But Kyiv said it worked with SpaceX to compile a “white list” of authorized Ukrainian Starlink terminals, allowing Russian-operated systems to be shut off.<\/p>\n

\"Three <\/p>\n

Russian soldiers standing with Starlink boxes at an unknown location. Ukraine said it has worked with SpaceX to block Starlink internet terminals used by Russian forces, a move Kyiv described as a major setback for Moscow\u2019s battlefield operations. (East2West News)<\/p>\n

“Starlinks included in the \u2018white list\u2019 are working \u2014 Russian terminals have already been blocked,” Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a Telegram post, adding that the list was still being updated, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The outlet said it could not independently verify the full scale of the disruption but cited multiple Ukrainian sources who reportedly said the impact appeared significant.<\/p>\n

Russian war bloggers also acknowledged the outage, the pro-Russian Telegram channel Two Majors saying there had been a major failure of Starlink terminals on the Russian side beginning Wednesday evening, describing the block as “extremely unpleasant,” according to the East2West news agency.<\/p>\n

US ACCUSES RUSSIA OF ‘DANGEROUS AND INEXPLICABLE ESCALATION’ IN UKRAINE WAR DURING PEACE NEGOTIATIONS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tesla <\/p>\n

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaking at an event.\u00a0 (Richard Bord\/WireImage \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Ukrainian military sources near the front told Reuters Russian units<\/a> were experiencing severe communications problems and were attempting to switch to Russian-made satellite systems.<\/p>\n

“All command of the troops has collapsed. Assault operations have been stopped in many areas,” Ukrainian defense adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

Some Russian frontline attacks have slowed or stopped due to the loss of Starlink communications, with other operations reduced as units struggle to coordinate, according to East2West.<\/p>\n

The outlet also reported that Russian forces could no longer attach Starlink terminals to drones for targeting and battlefield coordination, citing Ukrainian sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

East2West said Russia does not have a domestic alternative comparable to Starlink after failing to establish its own satellite-internet system for frontline forces.<\/p>\n

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Multiple <\/p>\n

Rows of boxed Starlink satellite internet terminals packed together at a Russian military outpost at an unknown location. (East2West News)<\/p>\n

Amid the communications disruption, East2West reported Russia launched a new spy satellite<\/a> aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.<\/p>\n

The Starlink disruption comes as U.S.-brokered talks aimed<\/a> at ending the war continue. American officials have said the United States will continue supplying weapons to Ukraine until a peace agreement is reached.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump indicated he planned to reach out to Elon Musk to speak about providing Starlink internet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-273489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}