The Russians' Satellite Navigation Went Down. That's When The Ukrainians Attacked.
Ukrainian advances in the southeast are modest, for now.
Elon Musk blocked Russia’s access to Starlink satellite terminals
Ukrainian troops chose that moment to attack
Now the Ukrainians are on the move in southeastern Ukraine
Their gains have been modest so far
On Feb. 4, billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications company throttled the thousands of terminals across Ukraine. At the behest of the Ukrainian government, the firm shut down all terminals moving at 75 km/hr or faster. That effectively grounded thousands of satellite-guided drones on both sides of Russia’s 48-month wider war on Ukraine.
The Ukrainians quickly submitted a list of their own Starlink terminals, which Musk’s company reauthorized for high-speed use. The effect of the related moves was that Ukraine retained Starlink access; Russia, which has been using smuggled and stolen Starlink systems, lost it. “Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk wrote.
For the Ukrainian armed forces, the sudden Starlink gap was an opportunity. A few days after Russia’s terminals went down, Ukrainian forces counterattacked in several sectors along the 1,200-km front line—especially in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts in southeastern Ukraine.
Late last year, the Ukrainians concentrated some of their best-resourced assault battalions and regiments in the southeast in a desperate bid to slow Russia’s ongoing offensive around Huliaipole, a key logistics hub that fell to the Russian 127th Motor Rifle Division in late December.
Additional forces raced south to join the assault units already in the area. One of the reinforcing units, likely the 425th Assault Regiment—previously fighting around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast—brought along its newly delivered ex-Australian M-1A1 Abrams tanks. The regiment has up-armored at least some of its potentially dozens of M-1s with Russian-style “hedgehog” anti-drone armor.
