As the Russia‑Ukraine war enters its fourth year, a Reuters investigation claims Elon Musk directed senior SpaceX engineers in 2022 to shut off Starlink coverage over parts of Ukraine, including Kherson, during a key offensive, triggering a communications blackout for Ukrainian forces.
Citing three people familiar with the decision, Reuters reported that at least 100 Starlink terminals were deactivated, disrupting drone surveillance and long‑range artillery operations and contributing to the failure of the Kherson push. Ukrainian military officials told the agency that troops “panicked” as links went dark.
Reuters’ sources said Musk acted over fears that deeper Ukrainian advances could provoke a Russian nuclear response.
SpaceX has denied the account, telling Reuters the findings are “inaccurate” and pointing to an earlier post on X stating Starlink remains “fully committed to providing service to Ukraine.” Musk himself previously wrote on X in March that Starlink “would never do such a thing.”
The story surfaced a day after Starlink suffered a global outage, which the company acknowledged. Musk apologised on X, saying service would be restored shortly and SpaceX would fix the root cause to prevent a recurrence.
No formal, detailed statement from SpaceX addressing the specific Reuters allegations had been released at the time of publication.
