Ukraine is working with SpaceX to pull the plug on Russia’s growing use of Starlink in their drones.
Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on 2 February that Ukraine will launch a “white list,” to which every legitimate Starlink user must register, civilian and military. The rest will be disconnected.
Starlink-equipped drones can shrug off most electronic countermeasures. Shutting Russians out of the system can stop them from buffing up their terror weapons — assuming the process goes smoothly and SpaceX maintains commitment.
“This is a reaction to the use of Starlink by the Russians,” Fedorov wrote.
“Russian drones equipped with the terminal are difficult to shoot down. They fly at low altitudes, are resistant to electronic warfare, and are controlled by the operator in real time even at long distances.”
Over the weekend, Fedorov and his adviser Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov announced that Ukraine already implemented a short-term crackdown in coordination with SpaceX, whose satellites make Starlink possible.
The announcements were light on details, but it likely involved limiting the top overland speed at which the satellite connection is possible. Fedorov wrote that the first steps have already yielded "quick results in the fight against Russian drones."
Flash wrote that many users of the Starlink satellite communication system in Ukraine are already feeling SpaceX’s countermeasures. He promised that this is a "temporary" and "emergency" solution, apologizing to units that have been affected.
Fedorov called the white list a “forced step” to save lives and energy infrastructure. Through it, he said “we maintain stable communication for Ukrainians, strengthen security and deprive the enemy of technological advantages.”
The defense minister publicly thanked SpaceX owner Elon Musk, who responded by tweeting “you’re most welcome.”
Musk has a fraught relationship with Ukraine. Starlink has been a backbone of Ukraine’s military communication during the full-scale invasion.
But Musk has cut off Starlink access before, sabotaging an attack on occupied Crimea; mocked Ukraine's stance on national sovereignty; and talked smack about its NATO prospects. His father even visited Moscow to praise Putin and spread propaganda, among other controversies.
The US threatened to cut off Starlink in February 2025 if Ukraine didn’t sign a minerals deal.
What’s the deal with Starlink
Starlink can make drones more reliable to control and much harder to jam. The Russians have been putting Starlink on their long-range Shahed series, as well as shorter-range kamikaze UAVs like the Molniya and BM-35, and reconnaissance drones.
This practice dates back to at least 2024, according to Kostyantyn Kryvolap, a former aviation test engineer at the Antonov Design Bureau.
“At first, it was an experiment, which wasn’t very successful at first, and they didn’t scale it up (at the time),” he said.
“But mentions of Starlink have appeared towards the end of last year. And in January, they reached significant volumes.”
A Ukrainian engineer with the Unmanned Systems Forces, who declined to be identified, said something similar: “My understanding is that there was a spike” in late 2025-2026. “Nobody had seen Molniya drones with Starlink, but now they’re everywhere.”
The practice has attracted more widespread attention when Russian forces hit a civilian train with Shahed drones, reportedly equipped with Starlink, in Kharkiv Oblast on 27 January. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported that a locomotive and a car caught fire; casualties were reported.
Whitelist registration
Kryvolap said there are about 30,000 Starlink systems in use by Ukraine at the moment. The vast majority are used for communication, but some are used on unmanned systems.
The whitelist should cut down on Russia’s ability to use Starlink for their drones. But some Ukrainian service members speaking on condition of anonymity said it could be messy.
Like other equipment, many terminals are acquired outside the military, at the units’ own expense. “Half the stuff is off the books, from god knows where, in whoever's name,” one service member said.
Flash wrote that previous attempts to collect data for registration have been stymied by soldiers reluctant to provide information to command, worried that they would lose access to their reliable communications equipment.
“We will definitely come up with a way to collect information on the Army so that the soldiers trust us with this information,” he promised.
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Others said the registration process should be relatively straightforward. Users could add their starlink IDs to a Ukrainian database like one used by the Delta battle management system, then let SpaceX go through the tables and add all the IDs to the white list.
But, that also depends on SpaceX’s systems not messing up, another service member said.
System backend
Starlink doesn’t work on the territory of Russia but does work in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military insiders believe that Russia is getting the terminals and other hardware through its many shell companies registered in other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates. Russia uses this method to get many of the components that go into its weapons.
Asked if there was a practical upper limit on these acquisitions, James, an American engineer and head of the Azov International Battalion’s fiber-optics laboratory, said it’s hard to tell: “I know that Starlink is chunking out terminals as fast as they can… so I don’t see a limit. These devices are incredibly easy to produce.”
But the hardware is only one part of the equation. Starlink users also need to have accounts. For Russia, these are also likely to be registered in other countries. These accounts are all in a database. This informs Fedorov’s solution of blocking all unregistered accounts.
Can SpaceX follow through?
James told Euromaidan Press that it’s fully feasible for SpaceX to shut down Russian accounts.
“They can trace everywhere these things are going, they know exactly where those Starlink terminals are located. That is the place where these Starlink systems need to be blocked,” said James, who built internet infrastructure in the US before volunteering in Ukraine. “There's no reason for them not to do it.”
The question is whether SpaceX has the will and the commitment to follow through in the mid-to-long term. Kryvolap believes that it does.
“Since we work very effectively with SpaceX and almost all of Ukraine’s military communications are built on Starlink, there will be agreements, if they don’t already exist,” Kryvolap told Euromaidan Press. “They will have created a group that is jointly developing means to combat these Russian drones. I think this whole thing won’t take very long.”
James was more cautious in his assessment, calling the announcements “a step in the right direction.”
“But the things I said still apply,” he added — the Russians will try to find workarounds.
Mobile networks also a threat
Starlink is not the only system the Russians are using to control some of their drones. They are also hijacking local mobile networks by using Ukrainian SIM cards in their drones.
Molfar Institute reported that this tech was field-tested in Kazakhstan and Türkiye before being deployed in Ukraine. Russia is also collecting SIM cards from European operators.
4G modems are part of the Shaheds’ GPS navigational package. Adding functional SIM cards allows these drones to connect to Ukrainian (and other countries') data networks.
These trackers are able to send information back to Russia through these networks, possibly employing Telegram bots for this purpose, according to Ukrainian engineers.
James said that these systems are even more useful than Starlink, once a Russian drone is close enough to its target to initiate its terminal guidance phase. And it is why phone companies must also crack down on data accounts that are being used in this way.
“Vodafone, Kyivstar, Lifecell, they need to get their shit in a bag and start with these mobile accounts’ IMEI numbers,” he said. “They should be able to track these SIMs as they move across the country.”
“It’s not that hard. You could code up an automated system that allows you to track that stuff quickly,” and integrate it with Delta. “I totally blame the cell companies for allowing this to happen.”
