Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units struggled to hit targets.

Billionaire Elon Musk ordered the shutdown of Starlink satellite internet over part of Kherson Oblast in the autumn of 2022 during a major counteroffensive operation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Source: Reuters,

Soldiers on Ukraine’s front line suffered a communications blackout for more than two hours last night following a major outage on Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink.

Elon Musk ordered a Starlink communications blackout over parts of Ukraine during a critical 2022 counteroffensive against Russia, leading to a military disaster and preventing soldiers from retaking territory held by Russia.

On September 30, 2022, the Ukrainian army was poised to score a massive military victory against Russia, but reportedly fearing a Russian nuclear retaliation, Elon Musk decided to determine

A rare global interruption in the Starlink satellite Internet network knocked subscribers offline for more than two hours on Thursday, the longest widespread outage since SpaceX opened the service to consumers nearly five years ago.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022 The effort began in late February, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Musk said Starlink terminals were “on the way” but provided little detail.

We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand. — Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022.

Canada and the European Union are both reconsidering reliance on Starlink, with Ontario cancelling a $100 million deal over such concerns.