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Ukraine accuses SpaceX of crippling drone missions as ties with US worsen
~news~tech~war.russia ukraineukraineusadronesstarlink
www.yahoo.com last weekTildes

Summary

From the article:

Ukraine accused Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday of limiting Starlink services, crippling its drones, as Russian missiles knocked out power stations in attacks President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called "ostentatious disrespect" to Donald Trump.

[...]

Ukrainian military officials said Musk's SpaceX had without warning interrupted functioning of military-grade Starlink terminals moving at high speed, effectively preventing Kyiv from using them as onboard guides for drones.

"Our defence forces did not receive a warning about this limitation, and this led to the disruption of several missions," presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram.

[...]

Sources have told Reuters and other news organisations that the US has threatened to cut off intelligence for early warning of missile strikes on Ukraine, to press Kyiv to suspend attacks on Russian oil refineries.

[...]

Ukrainian officials said late on Tuesday they had received no warnings from Western partners for a second day before the massive Russian attacks on the capital. Trump had insisted on Tuesday that Washington was still sharing intelligence.

[...]

Starlink does not work inside Russia, and ​Ukrainian drones hitting Russia's oil industry use other means of ​communication, but Ukraine uses Musk's system to guide drones over its own territory, including parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

"According to our observations, during flights, the connection could drop for 10–20 seconds at speeds of just 110–120 km/h. The drones kept moving, but these interruptions made them harder to control," Ukraine's 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, deployed in the southeast, said ​in a statement to Reuters.

A source in Ukraine's defence ministry said the ‌limitations significantly complicate logistics and some drone operations.