In late January 2026, a Russian strike drone bypassed Ukrainian air defense systems and flew over the government district of Kyiv toward the Presidential Office building. This became the reason for Ukraine to ask Elon Musk to block Starlink from the Russians.
Journalist Simon Schuster writes about this in an article for The Atlantic, citing sources.
The drone flew so low that officials on the seventh floor of the Cabinet of Ministers building could see it flying past their windows.
“A bunch of people saw it and were running around, asking, ʼWhat the hell was that?’ ” one government official recalled. According to one Ukrainian official, the Russian BM-35 drone crashed into a neighbouring building and caused minor damage—no one was hurt.
Shortly after the attack, Ukrainian officials turned directly to Elon Musk for help: they asked him to block the Russiansʼ Starlink terminals. The newly appointed Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov provided Musk with evidence that the Russian military was using Starlink to control its long-range drones, including the one that flew into the government quarter.
During a series of talks with Musk and his team, the Ukrainians proposed a plan to block Starlink from Russians. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink network, then developed a “whitelist” of Ukrainian users and blocked access for Russians.
A source familiar with the plan told Schuster that the whitelist software was created in about a day. The SpaceX team behind it had received clear instructions from its leadership: “No restrictions. Take off the gloves. Use Starlink for anything to help Ukraine.”
Even within the company, there was confusion about what exactly motivated Musk. But the source says it was clearly a political decision on Musk’s part.
Starlink blocking for Russians
On Monday, February 2, verification of Starlink terminals started in Ukraine. The solution is being implemented together with SpaceX. Only verified and registered devices will work — others will be disabled. Currently, the "white lists" are updated once a day.
The decision was made because the Russians use Starlink to control drones. Such UAVs are difficult to shoot down because they fly low, are resistant to electronic warfare, and are controlled in real time.
The Adviser to the Minister of Defense Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov wrote that due to the blocking of Russian terminals, all command and control of the Russian troops has been disrupted, and assaults have been stopped in many areas. The disruptions in Starlink work were also confirmed by a number of Russian “military corpsmen,” wrote Meduza. In their posts, they emphasized that alternatives to Starlink satellite Internet in the ranks of the Russian army “simply do not exist” and “much of it, including combat control, was connected to it”.
The Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that after the Starlink shutdown on February 2, the Russians are looking for a replacement, but there is currently no one. The occupiers are using “Gazprom” communication terminals that operate via the Russian Yamal satellites — there are only five of them in orbit. This number is not enough to cover the entire front, and the terminals do not relay video and provide poor communication quality.
The Russiansʼ lack of stable communications allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to launch an offensive in the Oleksandrivka direction to thwart the Russian offensive on the Dnipropetrovsk region and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian paratroopers liberated over 300 km² of territory.
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