{
  "id": 16973618,
  "title": "How Elon Musk Turned on Ukraine",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/how-elon-musk-turned-on-ukraine",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-28T22:28:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/10/elon-musk-ukraine-starlink-alternative/689192/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On October 11, a confidential memo was circulated to Ukrainian military officers, warning them of a looming catastrophe. Earlier in the week, Donald Trump chose to ease sanctions on Russia and start procuring its diesel fuel. This shift in U.S. policy led to the memo's dire prediction of further American betrayal: loss of access to the Starlink satellite network, which Ukraine relies on for its drone fleet. The document cautioned that Elon Musk, the founder of Starlink, might soon curtail service in Ukraine and advised users to \"keep all communication alternatives to Starlink on standby - ready for immediate use - and develop contingency plans.\"\n\nTwo days later, the dire warnings began to materialize. Starlink service faltered in the war zone, grounding drones and disrupting military operations. In one incident, it resulted in the loss of Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea, as confirmed by two people familiar with the mission. The memo, issued by Narodnyi Starlink (People's Starlink), forewarned that Musk could restrict service, potentially culminating in a complete shutoff and plunging the war into chaos.\n\nThe memo's founder, Volodymyr Stepanets, visualized various ways Musk could restrict service, with a total shutoff posing the gravest threat, possibly enabling Russia's victory. A senior U.S. military officer emphasized that without Starlink, the war would come to a standstill. Musk himself admitted to causing the outages via X posts, expressing contempt for those advocating for more military aid to Ukraine.\n\nSince the disruption, Ukraine and its allies have been in a race to find an alternative to Starlink, a system that offers worldwide high-speed internet access via the world's largest constellation of satellites. No comparable solution exists currently. The most promising alternative under development in Ukraine met its significant setback in July, when its architect, Dmytro Stetsenko, died unexpectedly at the age of 46. European attempts to replicate Starlink are years away from matching its scale, and most of these initiatives require SpaceX's involvement to launch their satellites into orbit.\n\nRussia, in contrast, possesses its own fleet of rockets and is striving to establish a satellite network that could rival Starlink, aptly named Rassvet (Sunrise). This system would grant Russia an \"asymmetric advantage\" in the war, according to Andrey Liscovich, co-founder of the Ukraine Defense Fund, which has facilitated the acquisition of thousands of Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military. Putin, in a televised summit, praised SpaceX for leading the development race in space technology and highlighted Russia's close consultations with Musk, acknowledging the importance of orbit in avoiding clashes between nations.",
  "summary": "No reliable alternatives exist to Musk’s satellite network, and Ukraine cannot survive for long without it.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}