CNN: Since October 24, 1,300 Starlink terminals are not working for the Ukrainian military — “due to funding problems”

Author:
Anhelina Sheremet
Date:

Since October 24, 1,300 Starlink terminals have been shut down for the Ukrainian military due to funding problems. This was reported by CNN with reference to two sources.

One of them said that the terminals were turned off due to a "lack of funding". According to this source, the Ukrainian military paid $2,500 a month to keep each of the 1,300 units connected, bringing the total cost to nearly $20 million by September. Eventually, the military could no longer afford to pay for Starlink.

The outage affected a block of 1,300 terminals that Ukraine purchased in March from a British company and used for combat operations. Before the terminals were completely shut down, in early October, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine asked its British counterparts to pay a monthly bill of $3.25 million. A British official said that after discussions between ministries, "it was decided that military capabilities have a higher priority."

"We maintain a number of terminals that are of direct tactical importance to the Ukrainian military in reflecting a Russian invasion," a British official told CNN.

In September, SpaceX wrote a letter to the Pentagon in which it stated that there are almost 20,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine. Most of them were acquired with external funding, in particular from the governments of the USA, Poland, and Great Britain. These funding sources also paid approximately 30% of the monthly utility bill. It is not known how many terminals are used in the army.