On Thursday night, a global Starlink outage brought Ukraine’s battlefield internet to a stop.
Ukrainian military units use Starlink to stay connected during combat. It helps with drone missions, video feeds, and communication between teams. But suddenly, for 2.5 hours, all of that went silent.
At 10:41 p.m. local time, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, posted a warning:
“Starlink is down across the entire front.”
This wasn’t a small glitch. It was one of Starlink’s biggest global failures. Tens of thousands of users around the world were affected due to a software error.
The Battle Didn’t Stop—But the Eyes Went Blind
Even though soldiers kept fighting, the drones lost their live video feeds. Teams had to fly strike drones without seeing the ground. Some operations were cancelled.
A Ukrainian drone commander told Reuters that they had to delay missions. “Without internet, we can’t work,” he said.
A Wake-Up Call for Ukraine
By 1:05 a.m. Friday, the Starlink network came back online. Brovdi confirmed the fix but warned that this is a “wake-up call.”
He said Ukraine should not rely on just one system. The country must build local communication tools that work even when the internet fails.
Oleksandr Dmitriev, founder of OCHI, a system that links live drone footage, also raised concern. He said depending on the cloud for war planning is a “huge risk.”
Starlink Powers the War—But It’s Not Bulletproof
Since the war started, Ukraine has received over 50,000 Starlink terminals. These have helped the military fight back with smart tech.
Starlink does not officially operate in Russia. But Ukrainian officials say Russian troops are still using the system in Ukraine.
Back in 2022, Elon Musk had ordered Starlink coverage to be cut in some parts of Ukraine. That raised questions about how much control one company has in a war.
This new outage just adds to those worries.
What’s Next?
Starlink VP Michael Nicolls apologized on X, saying it was a “failure of internal software services.”
He promised the team is working to fix the root cause. But for many in Ukraine, trust in a single system is already shaken.
This short blackout showed something big: If the internet dies, the war slows down.
And that’s not just Ukraine’s problem. That’s a lesson for every military in the world.
