A major global outage in Starlink satellite communications on the evening of July 24 temporarily knocked out connectivity for Ukrainian forces across the entire front line, according to military officials. Service was restored after roughly two and a half hours.

The disruption, confirmed by global monitoring service Downdetector, began shortly after 9 p.m. Kyiv time and affected Starlink users worldwide. In Ukraine, where the satellite internet service is vital for battlefield communications, the outage raised immediate concerns.

The commander of Ukraine’s Drone Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, confirmed on Telegram that “Starlink went down across the front.”

By around 12:30 a.m., Brovdi announced that service had been fully restored in all sectors. “This incident, which lasted a long 150 minutes in wartime, highlights our system’s vulnerabilities,” he said.

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Starlink, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is considered a critical element of Ukraine’s defense infrastructure. Musk addressed the issue, saying terminal connectivity would be fully restored “soon.”

The temporary loss of Starlink marks one of the most serious communication interruptions for Ukrainian forces since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The Ukrainian military relies heavily on the service for real-time coordination, reconnaissance, and drone operations.

US Intelligence Says Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Off Russia’s Illegal Starlink Use
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US Intelligence Says Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Off Russia’s Illegal Starlink Use

On Friday, US intelligence assessed that Ukraine recaptured around 400 square kilometers of territory after Ukrainian officials disabled thousands of Starlink terminals used illegally by Russian forces. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, said the Starlink shutdown, together with middle-strike drones, helped shift battlefield momentum in Ukraine’s favor.

SpaceX has not yet issued a detailed explanation of what caused the disruption.

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