Starlink, Starshield cuts deal 'big blow' to Ukraine's front line, analyst says

Ukrainian officials have accused Elon Musk of restricting the country's access to SpaceX's Starlink internet network, disrupting its military defenses. Musk weighed in on social media, suggesting the responsibility for any such restrictions lies with the U.S. government. Now, this is what he said. StarShield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military and ultimately the president of the United States. Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. I should say, it's limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company. Damitella Sagarmiroso is a senior lecturer in war studies at King's College London, and she joins us now from London. Thank you so much for joining us, Damitela. How big a blow is this lack of internet, or should I say the Starlink and Star Shield systems? How big a blow is it not being able to use that for Ukraine? It is a big blow, especially if we consider Starshield, because Starshield is a communication system that helps the Ukrainian troops that are combating on the front line. So it seems that the disruption and the reduction in the speed, you know, in a way of the limitations on the speed is hindering some of the combat operations that Ukrainians are carrying out, you know, on the front lines. And this comes at a moment when Ukrainians were doing quite well. There was a famous Operation Vivaldi, which helped very much the Ukrainians to push back the Russians in the areas of Liman and also in the Donbass. So this is a moment when, paradoxically, the Ukrainians, while they were receiving massive attacks inside the country, they were doing quite well on the front lines. As far as Starlink, the commercial side of it, it seems to be less problematic. That doesn't seem to be the problem so much from what I'm reading among commentators in Ukraine. But the problem is not just limited to the way that the Starshield functions. It also seems that the United States also withdrew information a couple of days ago when ballistic missiles were reaching Ukraine and the Ukrainian capital. So it's it seems from the evidence that we have now that the Americans may have may have. Yes, I just wanted to get a sense of if there's any other system which can fill the breach. At the moment, it's very difficult. We have Eutelsat, which is a European system, but it's not so effective and up and running. What is interesting is apparently the shares of these European companies have really gone up in the last few days. So what will happen is that probably there's going to be a lot more investment into these systems. But at the moment, they're not able to replace Starshield and Starlink, unfortunately. They can cover some areas, and I'm sure there's going to be an effort to try to rely on them. But it certainly is very problematic at the moment. So tell us about the conflict right now and what's going on on the ground and indeed this drone warfare. You know, it seems like we're in stalemate, essentially. It's a stalemate with quite a bit happening along the front lines because the front lines has become a sort of a grey zone. It's not very clear. You know, it's not a very clearly defined zone. It's more like an area because there are infiltrations on both sides. So the Russians may infiltrate behind Ukrainian enemy lines, and the same happens with the Ukrainians, that they might infiltrate behind Russian enemy lines. So there is a lot of blur in this, what we call this kill zone, which is about 20 kilometers, where there is quite a lot of transparency. And the whole system of drones allows for the two sides to have quite a bit of information. So it's very hard to move throughout these areas. But what is interesting is that the Ukrainians have managed to push back some of the Russian advances in areas, especially around Lyman, as I said, and in the Donbass, in the more critical areas of around Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. Kaviansk. Konstantinivka is still quite surrounded, but the Russians have not managed to occupy it entirely. So the situation, if we think and we compare to what was, you know, earlier in the spring or in the summer, you know, at the moment is much better for the Ukrainians. But it doesn't mean that the Ukrainians are carrying out major counteroffensive. No, this is not the case. If we look at it, you know, from far away, you know, it really looks like a bit of a stalemate but you know there is quite a lot of intensive fighting happening on on the ground it does seem with winter approaching that it's going to be a crucial make or break winter perhaps for the ukrainians it is because you know i mean the ukrainians were already expecting uh massive attacks on the energy infrastructure also on water infrastructure and this is what happened a few days ago when around 39 ballistic missiles uh came into ukraine and they hit power stations, they hit substations, and there were blackouts, the tubes were not functioning. So, I mean, this is really problematic, because it also affects the capacity of Ukraine to operate its economy. The ports are being blockaded, or especially not allowed to function, I would say, not blockaded, but not allowed to function. That's the case, for example, of Odessa, which is a big port that the Ukrainians use on the Black Sea in the south. So there are many issues there. That is why it's so important to provide cover for the Ukrainian airspace, so to say. And this is really the moment where we would need not just the Europeans, but also the Americans to come in and provide the necessary coverage for Ukraine so that it doesn't really collapse entirely and it can survive the winter. I think from a humanitarian point of view, it's going to be very tough, but the Ukrainians are very tough. And I think they're going to pull it through the winter. The problem is the whole functioning of the economy and the ability of the Ukrainians to operate the front lines if they do not receive the necessary support from, let's say, from the back area. So that is really at the moment one of the issues we need to consider. Domitella, thank you very much. Domitella Sagramoso there, a senior lecturer in war studies at King's College London.