Starlink terminals operated by Ukraine's 125th Territorial Defense Brigade in Kharkiv Oblast were completely disabled in the first such incident since 2022, the Washington Post reported on May 17, citing unnamed Ukrainian soldiers on the ground.
Some of the soldiers the Washington Post spoke to said that the disruption contributed to Russia's breakthrough in the area. Moscow launched a new offensive with 30,000 troops on May 10, targeting Kharkiv Oblast, which is situated at the border with Russia in northeastern Ukraine.
"This was the biggest problem, we didn’t see how they were moving, we only worked through radio or through phones where they still worked," a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Kharkiv Oblast told the Washington Post.
The drone feeds that soldiers relied on to keep track of Russian movements "completely disappeared," he said.
Elon Musk's SpaceX company began providing the Starlink terminals to Ukraine shortly after the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. Starlink has since become indispensable to Ukraine's ability to communicate on the battlefield.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on May 17 that the scope of Russian advances in Kharkiv Oblast has widened. At the same time, Syrskyi said Moscow's troops had failed to make a breakthrough but acknowledged there would be "tough battles ahead."
Syrski's comments came a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists that Russian troops were able to advance as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep during their offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, but the front in the region has been stabilized.
Chris York
