The head of Ukraineʼs GUR Kyrylo Budanov confirmed that the Starlink systems had not worked "for some time" near Crimea, but noted that now "the entire front line is working on them."
He stated this during a speech at the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy.
"I am not sure that Mr. Elon Musk operated some mythical buttons and stopped the movement of some devices. This is my personal opinion. The fact that the Starlink systems did not work for a certain time near Crimea, I can absolutely confirm this, because we also used certain techniques," he said.
"We immediately realized that there is simply no coverage there, thatʼs probably all I can tell you," said Budanov.
But the Starlink systems, he also said, "have played a very significant role and actually continue to play a role right now because so many systems use antennas, use the Starlink systems themselves, to communicate, to transmit information from drones, especially when thereʼs a remote command post and so on.".
"They have proven themselves quite well at the front. You can talk a lot about whether they are good or bad, but there are facts — the entire front line works for them," Budanov said.
- Earlier, the CNN channel reported that in 2022, Musk secretly ordered the shutdown of Starlink near the coast of Crimea in order to disrupt Ukraineʼs attack on the Russian navy in Sevastopol. The TV channel received a fragment of Muskʼs biography, written by American journalist and writer Walter Isaacson, which will officially go on sale on September 12.
- Musk reacted to the scandal and stated that he did not turn off the Starlink satellite communication for drones, but refused to turn it on there at the request of Ukraine.