Some Starlink terminals in Ukraine have started to disconnect after changes in SpaceX’s usage policy. According to the military, this happened without warning the Ukrainian side, and the Ministry of Digital Affairs is now investigating the situation.
(the news is supplemented with a comment from the Ministry of Digital Affairs)
Some Starlink terminals in Ukraine have started to disconnect after changes in SpaceX’s usage policy. According to the military, this happened without warning the Ukrainian side, and the Ministry of Digital Affairs is now investigating the situation.
(the news is supplemented with a comment from the Ministry of Digital Affairs)
This is reported by the Ukrainian military, who received a corresponding warning through internal communication channels. These are restrictions related to the verification of terminals, which could affect their work in field conditions.
The message sent to units emphasizes that any actions with the equipment may worsen the situation:
«SpaceX just changed their usage policy without notifying Ukrainian representatives, which is why the terminals started shutting down!
Make sure not to reboot the terminals!
Now the Ministry of Digital Affairs is sorting it out!
Warn all teams⚠️
„Stay calm. The restrictions mainly concern the verification process to cut off enemy terminals. The main requirement for units is to refrain from rebooting and manipulating settings while the Ministry of Digital and communications coordinate database updates with SpaceX."»
The text suggests that the restrictions may be related to clearing the network of terminals used by the enemy. At the same time, even temporary failures in Starlink are critical for units that depend on it for communications, drone coordination, and data transmission.
As of now, there are no official comments from the Ministry of Digital Affairs or SpaceX.
Similar situations have arisen with Starlink before, when SpaceX has changed the rules of use or restricted the operation of terminals in certain regions or scenarios. In particular, the company has introduced geo-restrictions and additional verification to prevent the use of its terminals by the Russian military.
In such cases, problems often arise precisely during the update or verification of terminal data: devices may temporarily lose access to the network until they are confirmed in the system. This is why the military is asked not to reboot the equipment — this may restart the verification process and prolong the outage.
UPD 16:00: The Ministry of Digital Affairs noted in a comment to dev.ua that Starlink terminals in Ukraine are currently operating normally. They did not specify the details of possible failures, but the wording suggests that the situation is not widespread and has not systematically affected the operation of the network.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how communications disruptions significantly limited the military capabilities of the Russian occupiers to conduct combat operations in Ukraine. After blocking Starlink, the Russian Defense Forces managed to liberate about 200 square kilometers.
