The Starlink crackdown that bricked Russian terminals across the front line is a battlefield win for Ukraine. But an American military communications engineer embedded with Azov warns it should also be a wake-up call.
"This is the wake-up call the Ukrainian Army needs, because the shoe might be on the other foot soon enough," James, who heads a fiber optics laboratory in an Azov battalion, told Euromaidan Press. "Elon could just as easily switch off Ukraine's command and control."
Ukrainian forces rely heavily on Starlink for frontline communications, drone operations, and command and control. The same crackdown that proved how quickly the system can be weaponized against one side should remind Kyiv how easily it could be turned against the other.
The vulnerability nobody wants to talk about
James said Ukrainian forces default to Starlink too often, even when simpler, cheaper solutions would work. The system is convenient and reliable—but that convenience masks a dangerous single point of failure, controlled by a foreign company whose owner has a fraught relationship with Ukraine.
Elon Musk has cut off Starlink access before, sabotaging an attack on occupied Crimea. He has mocked Ukraine's stance on national sovereignty and talked down its NATO prospects. His father visited Moscow to praise Putin and spread propaganda.
The US itself threatened to disconnect Starlink in February 2025 to pressure Ukraine into signing a minerals deal—underscoring how the system can be leveraged as a geopolitical tool.
No viable European alternative exists. Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke has acknowledged her company cannot replace Starlink in Ukraine. The EU's planned IRIS² satellite constellation won't be operational until the early 2030s.
James said alternatives—like fiber optics and local wireless networks—are "incredibly simple and cheap." The problem isn't technology. It's inertia.
"Network connectivity is like plumbing," he said. "Nobody wants to think about it until everything goes to shit."
