KYIV — Two days after Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Starlink verification and blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine, the pace of Russia's offensive appears to be slowing, a Ukrainian military official told POLITICO.
“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.
"In fact, they [Russian units] have problems now. They are like blind kittens," a Ukrainian General Staff commanders told POLITICO separately, also granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
On Friday, Russian military bloggers, who in the past have praised Musk for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, complained about the mass failure of terminals for the Starlink satellite service that began on the evening on Feb. 4 on the frontline in Ukraine.
“The Russian Armed Forces used gray Starlinks to organize communications at the front. The danger is that it was an easy way compared to doing something new, pulling an ever-breaking optical fiber, setting up 'bridges,' or even working en masse with digital stations to organize the transmission of small data packets,” Russian pro-war military Telegram channel Dva Mayora, said in a post on Thursday. "Gray" Starlink terminals are ones that are not authorized or verified.
“Now it's either the old-fashioned way, or they'll come up with something of their own urgently,” the bloggers added, blaming Musk for assisting the Ukrainian army.
"It requires Ukrainian cooperation" is a weird to say that "It required SpaceX cooperation."
Why would you reverse the roles like that? As if Ukraine hasn't wanted something exactly like this?
> If SpaceX had acted on their own, the blame would fall on them.
Who is asking SpaceX to act on their own, another really weird framing.
> The blame is on the Ukrainian government now.
There's zero blame on the Ukrainian government, unless you're one of the Russian invaders trying to kill civilians and commit genocide.
Are you a Russian soldier? If not, why speak in this utterly detestable fashion?
If you're a SpaceX employee or fan, that reflects very badly on SpaceX and makes them look even worse than they did up until now.
Personally the only explanation for SpaceX not doing this sooner is probably that they're looking at IPO and are trying to become respectable before they have to go out on the roadshow. As if, they kept this basic bit of human decency in their back pocket until they could cash it in somehow.
People like you who don't realize if you don't have a list and approval to go ahead, you can't implement a whitelist. It's paperwork, the tech part is already done.
The Ukrainians complaining about terminated service think different. Some of them are borrowing working equipment. They are blaming their govt, not SpaceX
What's detestable is misinformation about public facts.
Supplying Starlink to Ukraine has been one of the best things to happen to Ukraine, regardless of the bad PR.
Based on PR alone, they shouldn't have bothered until they got a Pentagon contract but that would have set back Ukraine. I'm also glad Microsoft and Palantir stepped up while countries dawdled.
The only explanation is Ukraine weighed the matter and worried the loss of connectivity for their own soldiers would be worse until they saw the devices on long range drones.
This is absolute nonsense. The Ukrainian government must have weighed cost/benefits and were worried about their equipment going off(as it has). This is mostly an administrative fix not technical. And requires political will.
SpaceX has had the ability to allowlist devices since at least October 2023. Federov said he'd do this in Q1 2024.(You, like many, don't realize most terminals in Ukraine, even terminals used by the military, are purchased by private individuals outside Ukraine using foreign payments, those people raising money online aren't buying it in Ukraine)
Ask Ukrainians you know who have terminals when they added their equipment to the list. When they were asked to. Why they didn't when they were asked.
The fact that Ukrainians are unable to get their logistics together (note the lack of a list of known "good" equipment for years and termination of several Ukrainian users now) is responsible for this.
>Who is asking SpaceX to act on their own
People like you claiming I'm reversing the roles when there's no evidence SpaceX hasn't been willing and able to allowlist equipment for ages. And several people who wanted SpaceX to go hunting for Russian operated equipment as though they had a different origin from Ukrainian ones. (Or should SpaceX have turned off equipment until Ukrainians submitted a list of known good ones independently?)
There are Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline today without service, they are blaming the Ukrainian government (who they didn't trust to do it right or do right by them in the first place) for the issue. There's a Universe that SpaceX has dodged where they would be blamed for turning the equipment off. That's your zero blame.
We'll see books written post-conflict and the truth will come out.
>basic bit of human decency
You should have some and stop spreading conspiracies.(To reverse the roles Ukraine would have had a known good list of all their equipment and SpaceX would have refused to implement an allowlist. The announcement for device registration, especially for military users and the promise the equipment won't be repurposed tell a markedly different story. Maybe we'd have a "SpaceX turns off Ukrainian terminals, soldiers in disarray" article from 2023 with you insisting the unregistered Ukrainian terminals should have been kept on until Ukraine was ready. {As they did})
The first private report of this issue I heard was in H2 2023. In early 2024 the Ukrainian government said it had become a systemic issue and they estimated at least 2000 dishes were being used by the Russians. The Pentagon and SpaceX formed a working group to and terminated several accounts. Some people even got arrested and prosecuted. A minuscle number of Ukrainian terminals were terminated too.
Most if not all of this is public. Some of it in public hearings.
But even back then the Ukrainian government was informed by foreign and local people it would never really go to zero until a list of dishes was collected and an allowlist implemented.
Federov was digital minister back then and he said he'd do it. He's now Defence minister and he's done it. Maybe he needed political power to do it?
But it's SpaceX fault that Ukraine didn't collect it back then?
“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.
"In fact, they [Russian units] have problems now. They are like blind kittens," a Ukrainian General Staff commanders told POLITICO separately, also granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
On Friday, Russian military bloggers, who in the past have praised Musk for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, complained about the mass failure of terminals for the Starlink satellite service that began on the evening on Feb. 4 on the frontline in Ukraine.
“The Russian Armed Forces used gray Starlinks to organize communications at the front. The danger is that it was an easy way compared to doing something new, pulling an ever-breaking optical fiber, setting up 'bridges,' or even working en masse with digital stations to organize the transmission of small data packets,” Russian pro-war military Telegram channel Dva Mayora, said in a post on Thursday. "Gray" Starlink terminals are ones that are not authorized or verified.
“Now it's either the old-fashioned way, or they'll come up with something of their own urgently,” the bloggers added, blaming Musk for assisting the Ukrainian army.
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