Starlink no longer works as it did before, reliably, in Ukraine
: numerous military soldiers from Kiev are reporting this, denouncing disruptions to the satellite system right along the front line, which is creating major obstacles in efforts to free the territory from Russian forces .
This was reported by the Financial Times
, which heard sources from the Ukrainian civil administration and army.
The Starlink system, created by SpaceX, Musk's aerospace company, is a constellation of satellites connected to terrestrial terminals which in these months of war helped keep Ukraine 'on-line'.
Thousands have been purchased by the US government and others have been crowdfunded by donors to help Ukrainian troops operate drones, receive intelligence updates, and communicate with each other in areas of uncertain coverage.
The systems also provide the Internet for Ukrainian civilians.
According to Musk, in reality the terminals donated or purchased by the US are only a small percentage and the operation will cost Space X more than $ 100 million at the end of the year.
According to FT sources, some service outages have resulted in a "catastrophic" loss of communication in recent weeks
.
It is unclear whether the interruption of the service is due to technical problems or is intentional
.
Last week, the American billionaire proposed
a peace plan for Ukraine that angered Kiev
for inviting his 'followers' to vote on his proposal.
Musk has proposed new UN-supervised self-determination referendums in the territories annexed to Russia, the guarantee of water supply in the Crimea, the renunciation of Ukraine to that peninsula and the fact that it must declare a neutral country.
According to a senior Ukrainian government official with first-hand knowledge
, many of the problems were reported when Ukrainian soldiers were engaged in front lines in contact with Russian forces
, when they liberated portions of territory and some during pitched battles, the official said. speaking on condition of anonymity.
Most of the malfunctions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, but also occurred along the front line in eastern Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk, the official said.
Not all sources reported malfunctions, as reported by the military who had just liberated territories in the Izyum and Kherson areas.
Roman Sinicyn,
coordinator of the Serhiy Prytula Charity, a foundation that donates Starlink systems to the Ukrainian military, said
the problem could occur because SpaceX is trying to prevent its misuse by Russian forces.
And this would explain why the problems mainly occur in areas of contact with Russian forces
Elon Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
On Twitter Musk wrote: "What is happening on the battlefield is classified."