During a pivotal push by #Ukraine to retake territory from #Russia in late Sept 2022, #ElonMusk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive & dented Kyiv’s trust in #Starlink, the satellite internet service Musk provided to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity.
Acc/to 3 people familiar with the command, #Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of #SpaceX to cut coverage in areas including #Kherson, a strategic region north of the #BlackSea.
“We have to do this,” Michael Nicolls, the #Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order from #Musk, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the 3 people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, their hexagon-shaped cells going dark on an internal map of the company’s coverage. The move also affected other areas seized by #Russia, including some of #Donetsk province further east.
Upon #Musk’s order, #Ukraine troops suddenly faced a #communications #blackout, acc/to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, & 2 others who experienced #Starlink failure near the front lines. Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling #Russia forces went dark, & long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets.
As a result,…troops failed to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, the administrative center of the region of the same name. “The encirclement stalled entirely,” said the military official in an interview. “It failed.”
Ultimately, #Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeded in reclaiming Beryslav, the city of Kherson & some additional territory #Russia had occupied.
But #Musk’s order, which hasn’t previously been reported, is the first known instance of the billionaire actively [& personally] shutting off #Starlink coverage over a battlefield during the conflict. The decision shocked some Starlink employees & effectively reshaped the front line of the fighting, enabling #Musk to take “the outcome of a war into his own hands,” another one of the three people said.
…#Musk’s order was an early glimpse of the #power the magnate now wields in #geopolitics & #GlobalSecurity because of #Starlink, a fast-growing #satellite internet service that barely existed early this decade & now provides connectivity even in remote areas of the world. Even before his brief role as donor & advisor to #Trump, Starlink’s success–& the unrivaled connectivity it offers across the planet–had given Musk increasing #influence w/political leaders, governments & militaries worldwide.
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