The recent action by SpaceX to sever access of the Russian military to its Starlink satellite network has been greeted positively by the foreign minister of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski, who has stated that the move was an overdue welcome. He made these remarks on the SpaceX founder Elon Musk after it was reported that Russian forces had been experiencing serious disruption of communication in the battle field.
Reports by Russian military bloggers and pro-war Telegram channels stated that Starlink internet that Russian forces were using had been cut off. The satellite system had also made internet available in regions where the traditional communications infrastructure is either sparse or not available. The Russian media reported that nearly 90 percent of active units were hit by the outage, though the General Staff of Ukraine stated that Russian attacks slowed significantly following the attack.
The loss of satellite communication was also reported to have caused Russian troops to have to find other ways of communicating. Both Russia and Ukraine media reports indicated that the military had started using volunteers to provide simple radio gear. The pro-war Telegram channel Voenkory Russkoi Vesn urged people publicly to contribute money to get radios, saying that it had become more difficult to control and organize operations in vast areas of the front line.
In a video provided by the channel one of the Russian soldiers was furious about the situation, saying that his squad was basically left without communications. The Moscow Times, an independent Russian media, also wrote of the mounting discontent in the Russian military circles, referencing to the general problems that are observed after the apparent closure.
These occurrences followed almost immediately after Elon Musk posted on social media that efforts made by SpaceX to ensure that Starlink was not unlawfully used by Russians seemed to be effective. In early February, Musk wrote that writing about X, saying that the efforts that the company has taken had been successful.
Sikorski took a public response to the action by Musk and commented that the action was appreciated and it took too long to be implemented. His reaction came after an earlier and more provocative confrontation between the two, where the Polish foreign minister attacked Musk on claims that Russian troops were using Starlink terminals to aid drone attacks on Ukraine.
In the same previous conflict, Sikorski had published a report by the Institute of the Study of War, a U.S.-based academic organization, which alleged Russian forces are becoming more and more dependent on Starlink in conducting their military activities. In his sharp message, Sikorski gave Musk an appeal to block Russian access to the system, saying that it would damage the reputation of SpaceX to make a profit on technology that was used to attack Ukrainian cities.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in full force in 2022, Starlink has been at the heart of the military communications in the country. The Ukrainian forces are heavily relying on the satellite internet to have an efficient network at the battlefield, command and control functionality, and drones. The military of Ukraine is now using tens of thousands of Starlink terminals.
Poland has been among the major financial supporters of Ukraine to the system. Sikorski reports that, to enable Ukraine to use Starlink, Warsaw is paying about 50 million dollars annually, an amount that indicates the core of the political and security assistance that Poland has provided Kyiv since the war started.
The blocked access of Russian forces to Starlink has shown the increased role of satellite-based communications in warfare in the present day and highlighted the ways in which the choices made by commercial technology firms have a direct impact on military affairs. Though SpaceX has always claimed that it does not offer its services to Russia, the recent news indicates that it has renewed its implementation efforts to hinder its illegal military utilization of technology.