Ukraine Turns to SpaceX as Reports Emerge of Russian Drones Using Starlink

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the ministry had contacted SpaceX and proposed ways to address reports of Russian drones using Starlink connectivity over Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrinform on January 29. 

Fedorov said his team reached out to SpaceX within hours of the first such sightings and thanked SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Elon Musk for what he called a fast response and the start of work to resolve the situation.

He also cited Musk’s early-war decision to activate Starlink and send an initial batch of terminals to Ukraine as “critically important” to the country’s resilience, and wrote that “Western technologies must continue to help the democratic world and protect civilians, not be used for terror and the destruction of peaceful cities.” 

Earlier this week, Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Fedorov, said Russian forces may have used Starlink-guided Shahed attack drones for the first time during a January 24 strike near Kropyvnytskyi.

Separately, Interfax-Ukraine has reported that Fedorov said at a January 26 drone-focused event that Ukraine needed to react “very quickly” to Russian drones equipped with Starlink satellite systems.

Earlier, it was described how Starlink satellite internet has been a critical communications backbone for Ukraine’s military operations, including enabling connectivity for frontline units since the start of the full‑scale invasion.

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