Photos show Ukraine's Starlink was down during fatal strike
Photos obtained by CBS News show Ukraine's vital connection to Starlink was throttled on Oct. 19, inhibiting its interception capacity when a deadly Russian strike hit a park.
On October 19, a Russian drone struck a park in Kharkiv, Ukraine, killing 34-year-old makeup artist Yulia Spichak and four others, including a 1-year-old girl. This came six days after SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, reduced Ukraine's access to Starlink, a satellite internet service used by Ukraine for defense and offensive operations.
Musk accused Ukraine of violating Starlink's terms of service by using it for attacks on Russia. Ukrainian officials said the restrictions hindered ground-based air defense radars and drone interceptors. CBS News obtained photos showing Starlink connectivity dropping to .1 megabytes per second on the day of the attack, insufficient to power radars.
Starlink's access was restored on Saturday, and Musk acknowledged SpaceX had throttled connectivity. Ukrainian officials also complained about connectivity issues with Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade network. Alina Spichak, Yulia's sister, expressed her desire for the world to know about the war in Ukraine.
Written by urgent.news from CBS News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.