Starlink Shutdown on Russian Drones Cuts Off Strike Capability

February 1, 2026February 3, 2026

Around Sunday noon, news started appearing — too good to be true. Starlink shutdown on russian drones became reality as SpaceX blocked satellite communications at Ukraine’s request. And by evening, confirmation came from the opposite side too. So we can now speak very carefully that this is actually happening and the situation might look even deeper than it seems right now. Closer to evening, as happens with enemy press, this message appeared citing foreign sources:

SpaceX, at Ukraine’s request, blocked the use of Starlink satellite communications by russian military for controlling strike drones used to destroy Ukrainian civilian infrastructure… Measures taken are technical in nature… for Starlink terminals used on drones, the maximum connection speed was limited to 75 km/h. Since russian drones develop speeds of 180-270 km/h, this makes communication impossible for them.

We should recall reports that the enemy uses Starlink terminals in an increasing number of drone types. This allows making devices controllable in “first-person” mode. Simply put, an operator can manually guide the same Shahed to target, which multiplies its accuracy many times over. Moreover, having gained stable two-way communication, the Orcs* started installing additional cameras to control the drone’s rear hemisphere. This increases operational awareness and gives opportunity to notice a Ukrainian interceptor drone or even a missile in time to execute a timely evasion maneuver.

Air-to-Air Missiles on Shaheds

But that’s not all. Reports started appearing online that the Orcs began equipping Shaheds with light air-to-air missiles to fight our aviation. Clearly, nobody will equip a relatively cheap device with onboard radar, so the operator must visually detect the target, guide the drone and accordingly the missile at it, then launch. This requires reliable communication already in our deep rear, and Starlink solves this problem easily since its terminals are already being mass-installed on commercial airliners. And now the enemy writes this:

The Orcs complain that Starlink no longer works at speed. And advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov reported the following:

Many users of the Starlink satellite communication system in Ukraine are already observing the first countermeasures that SpaceX took at the request of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
I cannot publicly voice everything that has already been done, is being done and will be done, but all these actions aim at one goal: Protecting our country’s residents (both military and civilian) and our infrastructure facilities from the threat of enemy strike UAVs.
I want to emphasize that current solutions are TEMPORARY (or I’ll say differently EMERGENCY) and will be replaced by a global, thought-out solution, which will take time.

The Perfect Trap

And now the question arises: what was this all about? Clearly, Musk can’t be trusted, but everyone understands he has a gigantic market in the EU where he sells not only Starlink terminals but also his own electric cars. So it’s quite possible they asked him nicely to play along in this game. And then let’s just assume the agreement on blocking “black Starlinks” was reached some time ago. They worked out measures that could be implemented in stages, but they needed to wait for the fish to swallow the bait as deeply as possible. And when the enemy started transferring most of its long-range drones to Starlink and the scale reached industrial proportions, all this shut down together simply by pressing one button. Starlink shutdown on russian drones happened at the perfect moment — when they committed maximum resources.

After all, the Orcs already developed black schemes for importing Starlinks, moreover in quantities that should satisfy the needs of long-range drone construction. And now the terminals turned into scrap metal. As visible from the enemy’s reaction, they’re going to “work on” something there to spoof the actual speed, but who said the next blocking step will push off from speed? The situation resembles a ball flying into the pocket from two or more cushions.

Not So Cheap Anymore

We remember that long-range drones were a cheap replacement for cruise missiles. Let’s say, as of now they’re not so cheap anymore, and any “working on” of the Starlink communication system will cost additional money. That is, with the right approach to the matter, the enemy can be lured further and further into the thicket, so that there, when they invest maximum expenses, this possibility gets shut down completely.

If they played it out like that — this is a grandmaster’s game. Overly detailed reasoning about blocking at certain speed confirms this. The blocking side has no need to discuss these details. Yet we see this became topic #1. Starlink shutdown on russian drones might just be the opening move in a longer game of technological warfare.

More information should come in the near future. We’ll see blocking results through dynamics of different drone types’ use. Correlation between drone numbers in raids and raid frequency should be very noticeable. So let’s observe the development of this topic in just the coming days.