How much do satellites contribute to Kyiv’s defence? Starlink slowed down and Finnish radar targeted by Moscow

Ukrlan is twenty-eight years old and fires a howitzer from an underground position in the Donbas. When, during the night of 13–14 October, SpaceX restricted the movement of Starlink terminals over Ukrainian territory, he noticed it immediately: the connection with command was lost, and the network became extremely slow. In a drone war, knowing in good time what is coming from above is literally a matter of life and death. At the front, satellites are a very down-to-earth affair. The same signal guides the hexacopters carrying food and water to soldiers who have been stationed for weeks in forward positions, as well as the interceptor drones launched against the Russian jet-powered Shaheds, which travel at over 400 kilometres per hour.

With the new speed limit, the connection would drop out at speeds exceeding 161 km/h. Zelenskyy made it clear: some Shahed drones were not shot down. No one seems to know who decided on the speed limit. SpaceX say the order came from the White House; the White House say it came from Musk. Rubio dismissed the whole affair with an ‘it sort of happened’ – it just happened, that’s all. The slowdown came as Trump was pressuring Kyiv to stop striking Russian refineries. Musk claimed that shutting down Starlink would cause the Ukrainian front to collapse; it turned out that much less was needed: just a number in the software.

Earlier, around the same time, the Russian satellite Kosmos 2612 came within a few hundred metres of ICEYE X36, the Finnish radar that can see at night and through clouds and provides images to the Ukrainian army. Every evasive manoeuvre means time during which the satellite stops monitoring Ukraine, and a few hours’ less warning for a brigade under attack. If Europe truly wishes to return to discussing defence, it should ask itself how much of its security depends on infrastructure it does not control. For Ukrlan, satellites are as tangible as a bottle of water hanging from a drone. Provided the drone is flying.