this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
274 points (99.6% liked)

World News

53648 readers
3534 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
NewsAutoMod@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
lemmyAtom@lemmy.world
jordanlund@lemmy.world
274
Russian offensive appears to be slowing after Musk blocks Starlink access, Ukraine says (www.politico.eu)
submitted 1 day ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

“They are like blind kittens,” a Ukrainian General Staff commander tells POLITICO.

Two days after Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Starlink verification and blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine, the pace of Russia's offensive appears to be slowing, a Ukrainian military official told POLITICO.

“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.

top 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Okay, I'm going to write this out once because every single post that's about this ends up with lots of comments like this with tons of upvotes, and this is getting fucking ridiculous.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST STOP IT WITH THE OMG ELON COULD HAVE DONE THIS EARLIER, HE'S A RUSSIAN NAZI STOOGE WHO IS KILLING UKRAINIANS BECAUSE HE DIDN'T AND THIS IS ONLY BECAUSE OF THE EPSTIEN FILES ETC ETC ETC.

Ukraine did not want to implement a whitelist until now.

Let me repeat that

Ukraine did not want to implement a whitelist until now.

Ukraine and SpaceX have been working together on various counter measures this entire time, but they did not want a whitelist, as they weren't getting buy in from their soldiers, and having to whitelist the entire country is not an insignificant amount of work.

Soldiers were worried about having their donated or self purchased dishes taken. I'm sure civilians were worried as well. Civilians are dependent on it just as much as the military is, so it has to be a country wide program that comes with it's own technical challenges.

Russia, being the dicks that they are, started putting Starlink dishes on drones and hitting civilian targets, and these Starlink drones were harder to intercept & jam, so when they realized what was happening, Ukraine immediately asked SpaceX for help because the threat was to large. SpaceX immediately responded with a blanket speed limit to stop the drones from being used, and then worked with Ukraine to finally implement the whitelist.

There is no conspiracy here. This isn't Elon deciding okay I'll help you and finally make a whitelist. This has absolutely nothing to do with the Epstein files and Elon wanting to look good.

This is Ukraine detecting a new threat, asking SpaceX for help, and SpaceX helping them to the best of their ability.

Maybe try to be more informed about what is going on than remaining in your (rightful) Elon hate bubble that you can't see the forest through the trees.

/end rant.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

https://dronexl.co/2026/01/31/spacex-starlink-speed-limit-russian-drones/

Serhiy Beskrestnov, known by his call sign “Flash,” is the advisor on defense technology to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the same analyst who identified the Starlink connection to the train attack earlier this week.

Beskrestnov’s thread revealed a secondary challenge that is less dramatic but possibly more important for the long-term solution. Ukraine needs to collect complete information on all Starlink terminals in use across the Armed Forces, and soldiers have been reluctant to cooperate.

The problem is straightforward. Many soldiers use volunteer-provided or personally purchased Starlink terminals. These aren’t on any official inventory. Soldiers fear that reporting them to their commanders will result in confiscation, failure to replace them, or other bureaucratic headaches. Beskrestnov was blunt about this, acknowledging that previous attempts to catalog military Starlink use had failed for exactly these reasons.

This matters because any whitelist system only works if you know which terminals belong to friendly forces. Of the estimated 200,000 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine, fewer than half were procured through official government channels, according to a December 2025 analysis by Militarnyi. The rest exist in a legal gray zone of private purchases, volunteer donations, and foreign sourcing.

Beskrestnov promised to find a way to gather this information that earns soldiers’ trust. He also stressed that SpaceX is directly involved in the process and is actively assisting specialists from the Ministry of Defence.

[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 152 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Am I the only one who finds someone like musk having the ability to drastically change the state of wars on a whim disturbing?

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

The super wealthy have been doing this for ages, it's just that Musk is profoundly stupid so he does it in the open.

[–] Lembot_0006@programming.dev 22 points 1 day ago

There are many crazy people who can drastically change the state of many things. 70% of government heads are complete idiots or pieces of shit. Or both. 90% of billionaires are too. Maybe even all 100%. And they have a tremendous amount of power.

Of course it is disturbing, but nothing new.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago

Well, giving them access in the first place was probably the bigger problem, but the Americans have supplied both sides of a whole lot of wars.

[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

I am entirely convinced that if every billionaire motherfucker drops dead this very second there will be peace on earth tomorrow.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 72 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How many Ukrainians did Elon Musk kill by waiting this long to do this?

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Starlink units have supported Ukrainian forces throughout the invasion, but Russian forces have also captured many of the units as a result. Musk's company had been working to block Russian forces from utilizing the captured devices, and Ukrainian officials now say they are working to prevent Russian access long term.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-world/musk-confirms-spacex-success-preventing-russian-military-from-accessing-stolen-starlink-units

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

eww please don't bother linking to fox news

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was the earliest source available that showed Musk's actions.

While I don't support Musk, I did want to verify that he acted in good faith on this one thing.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There’s no way to verify that with a Fox link because they will happily leave out relevant information to build a narrative that doesn’t match reality.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah their news articles try not to be as blatantly pure propaganda as their TV programming, but they still omit a lot of information to subtlety frame stories in their favor.

[–] agingelderly@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Strange how he was able to find a solution once the Epstein files showed he is a pedo who raped kids

[–] TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not to detract from your actual point, but I thought they showed that he is a pedo who wants to rape kids, but was so uncool that all the other pedos blacklisted him. Which, admittedly, is not any better.

[–] agingelderly@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

I thought so too but turns out that is just one email out of many

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 6 points 1 day ago

There have been multiple reports of Russians using brand new western communications equipment.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I've seen videos of Russian using donkeys to carry ammunition, but I find out hard to behind believe they will officialize using stolen third party internet access points for any military operation.

The sheer amount of risks you would be exposed for something that they should have planned for years ago is insane. From giving away your location, risk if man in the middle attacks to just being cut in the worse possible moment.

The troops using then to circumvent restrictions I can imagine.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago

To those coming in to this post to say "Wow, a billionaire shouldn't be able to impact the outcome of geopolitical conflicts with the touch of a button!"

All I can say is...

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 16 points 1 day ago

This is great, a private citizen has the power to influence the outcome of wars, that's how it's supposed to work wooo!

[–] carrotfox@piefed.social 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This should also serve as a wake-up call for Europe, deeply dependent on US technology services

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So he could have done this years ago....

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

His assets should be frozen and he should be charged for war crimes and space x and starlink should be immediately turned over to nasa and space force

[–] SkabySkalywag@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Please, please, let me hear that sweet innocent Elon has somehow tragically and totally accidentally fallen out of window in the next few months.

[–] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On Friday, Russian military bloggers, who in the past have praised Musk for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, complained about the mass failure of terminals for the Starlink satellite service that began on the evening on Feb. 4 on the frontline in Ukraine.

Seig Hieling Elon Musk was loved by the Russian military bloggers. Only just until five days ago - on 2026-02-04 - did the oligarch and Epstein island fan flip the switch.

There is something very wrong with this picture and I hope he's remembered for how long he took to do so.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 day ago

How long was it?

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So a billionaire's decision to help an invading country resulted in thousands of casualties

Ban the rich, wealth caps now! Nobody should have a networth over millions, nobody should be allowed to hoard so much wealth for just themselves to use in evil ways

Anything over a million goes to tax

[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well that's the problem with flat caps. Where I rent right now, houses are very very close to a million. So if it's just a flat cap without additional housing, I'd never own a home.

Also where I lived a few years ago. A mil was comfortable where I would not mind giving up everything over a mil.

Well I don't have a good solution to the problem other than just making sure one house per family is maximum. I don't think it would solve too much wealth problem.

No one to be allowed to own two. Unmarried can have one house each, but the moment they marry, they must sell one house. Companies can never own residential real estate, that may fix some of the tax issues. Also you take away things like second yatch because it's "floating home".

[–] Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

GP said millions.

999 million is enough for everyone.

100 million is also enough for everyone.

[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

All I'm saying is, limit needs to by dynamic based on what one can afford. A roof over their heads, enough to eat nutricious food, enough to afford heating /cooling with some extra for a few luxuries and hobbies. These numbers look different at different places. That's all.

[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I think it's because Ukrainians are killing more russians a month than they can recruit. This is the first war where the number of deaths is higher than wounded on the russian side.

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

I think it's way too early to determine trends, but I hope so.

[–] verdi@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"Participate in the "redeem Musk op" or we withdraw further support."

I guess It's working. Now merge xitter into SpaceX and popular opinion will be primed to protect your shitty parasitic enterprises from any regulatory oversight.

edit: looking at some of the comments, including some fox news cites, holy shit, the psy op is overwhelmingly successful...

[–] hector@lemmy.today -5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I am doubtful that starlink had any measurable impact. Are they telling us that superpower Russia is unable to provide wireless communications for their soldiers on the front lines bordering their own country? As if Russia didn't have it's won satelites, cell towers they could build, which are line of sight, and other methods like sending signals over power lines.

I believe that for whatever reason they may have been using it, and enjoying the extra bandwidth, and that they had a lull retooling after it's cut off. I don't believe that Russia is dependent on Elon Musk's shitty satelite internet, which by all accounts is worlds worse than fiber optics.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I am doubtful that starlink had any measurable impact.

You can doubt all you like but there's a lot of documented cases of Russia using SL on their drones and in their command bunkers, too many to be easily denied.

Are they telling us that superpower Russia...

Russia isn't a superpower. In all ways but their nuclear arsenal they are at best a regional power.

As if Russia didn’t have it’s won satelites, cell towers they could build, which are line of sight, and other methods like sending signals over power lines.

Russia has very few satellites and perhaps only a handful of modern ones. They could build cell towers...and then Ukraine will blow them the fuck up, jam them, or listen to their comms. Signals over power lines? What power lines?

I don’t believe that Russia is dependent on Elon Musk’s shitty satelite internet, which by all accounts is worlds worse than fiber optics.

Again, what you believe may not match reality.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

It would not be the first time I overestimated Russia honestly, your criticisms there may not be without merit. The fact of the matter is Russia is fascist, and fascists don't end up with good leadership or stewardship of the economy. Just as they don't even make the components for advanced weapons systems that they once reverse engineered from western weapons (and consumer goods for that matter,) perhaps they've let their capability to make and use the internet languish.

I am aware it's not just me the military industrial complex has always overplayed the russians capability to justify higher spending. Even as other parts of the establishment show their failures.

I guess however, if Musk's satelites were an integral part of their operation they can't replace, they failed. If anyone goes through a window, it should be whomever is in charge of making sure they had communications and instead took payoffs for overpriced projects that didn't deliver, which is likely the case a thousand times over.

They should have the capability, and especially now this far into the war, there is no excuse, this is rank failure of Russia, an example of how fascism/one party states don't work.