Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine’s Defense Forces have regained about 400 square kilometers of territory after thousands of Starlink terminals used by russian troops were disabled. As reported by Ukrinform, citing Bloomberg, this figure was provided by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
According to intelligence data, enemy troops had been using Starlink terminals from SpaceX, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, to coordinate operations and drone strikes.
“Russian military capabilities in Ukraine were temporarily but significantly weakened following efforts by Ukrainian officials in February to deactivate thousands of Starlink terminals that russian forces had been illegally using to coordinate troop movements and drone aviation strikes in areas where communications were unreliable or easily jammed”, - the intelligence report states.
It is noted that after Ukraine raised concerns about the use of Starlink on russian drones, SpaceX published instructions on how to officially register terminals in order to prevent their use by russian forces.