Reuters: As Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia progressed, Musk ordered the shutdown of Starlink

Elon Musk cut off Starlink service during a counteroffensive by Ukraine as it recaptured territory from Russia, according to Reuters.

According to a Reuters investigation into the billionaire’s decision and its broader ramifications for nations growing more reliant on his Starlink satellite service, Elon Musk’s hitherto undisclosed directive to cut satellite internet coverage over portions of Ukraine thwarted a crucial counteroffensive by Kyiv in the fall of 2022.

Musk ordered a senior engineer at SpaceX, the company that makes Starlink, to turn off satellite coverage in places like Kherson, a key area close to the Black Sea, during a crucial push in late September 2022 to retake territory from Russian occupation, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Following Musk’s directive, SpaceX engineer Michael Nicolls reportedly told coworkers, “We have to do this.” After that, staff members complied and turned off at least 100 Starlink terminals. The hexagon-shaped cells that represented Starlink connectivity in those areas—including other areas of the Donetsk province farther east that were also governed by Russia—went dark on the company’s internal systems.

Ukrainian forces were caught off surprise by the abrupt outage. A Ukrainian military official, an armed forces advisor, and two other people close to the front line reported that soldiers experienced instant communication failure. Without Starlink support, combat aiming worsened, artillery coordination failed, and surveillance drones lost contact.

Consequently, a Russian stronghold in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson city, was not completely surrounded by Ukrainian forces. According to the military officer, “the encirclement stalled entirely.” “It didn’t work.”

Musk’s choice was the first instance of his deliberately cutting down Starlink service over an active conflict zone, despite the fact that Ukrainian forces subsequently managed to retake Beryslav, Kherson City, and other occupied territories. One of the people who told Reuters that Musk was able to “take the outcome of a war into his own hands” because the decision shocked some Starlink employees and changed the direction of the conflict.

Musk’s own version of Starlink’s use during the battle is contested by the Reuters story. Musk asserted that “We would never do such a thing” in a post on X (previously Twitter) in March.

When Reuters asked Musk and Nicolls for comment, neither of them replied. In an email, a SpaceX representative denied the report’s veracity but cited a previous X post that stated: “Starlink is fully committed to providing service to Ukraine.” The representative refused to respond to a thorough series of questions regarding the incident and Starlink’s continued involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, and she did not specify which aspects of the Reuters report were false.

Both the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian presidency declined to comment. Starlink is still operational in Ukraine and continues to connect its military forces in spite of the 2022 tragedy. As recently as this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy formally praised Musk for the service.