Shutting down Starlink for the Ukrainian military may be part of Musk's plan to force expensive contracts. Clarification from the Atlantic The publication reached this conclusion after speaking anonymously with officials and military personnel from Ukraine and the United States. In 2022, Elon Musk, after Russia began disabling Ukraine's digital infrastructure, donated thousands of Starlink terminals to the country - hospitals, power plants, government offices and various humanitarian organizations. However, the Ukrainian military soon began using this service to control their UAVs and maintain communications in the combat zone. The service had a critical advantage: the Russian military did not have access to Starlink or the ability to jam its signal, allowing Ukrainian drones to cross the battlefield and attack Russian positions. "More and more people started to feel uncomfortable," a former SpaceX engineer who worked on the development of the system told The Atlantic. Some of his colleagues left the company in protest. In September 2022, Ukrainian officials asked Musk to operate Starlink in the Black Sea. They wanted to use it for a surprise attack on Russian warships near the annexed Crimea. Musk refused. "Starlink is not meant to participate in wars. It was made for people to watch Netflix, relax, learn online and do peaceful things, not for drone attacks," he told his biographer Walter Isaacson around the same time. However, in late 2022, it announced the launch of a service called Star Shield specifically for military customers. This system is much more expensive to maintain than regular Starlink: up to 25 thousand dollars per month instead of 30. Read more on the Dodge website.

Shutting down Starlink for the Ukrainian military may be part of Musk's plan to force expensive contracts. Clarification from the Atlantic The publication reached this conclusion after speaking anonymously with officials and military personnel from Ukraine and the United States. In 2022, Elon Musk, after Russia began disabling Ukraine's digital infrastructure, donated thousands of Starlink terminals to the country - hospitals, power plants, government offices and various humanitarian organizations. However, the Ukrainian military soon began using this service to control their UAVs and maintain communications in the combat zone. The service had a critical advantage: the Russian military did not have access to Starlink or the ability to jam its signal, allowing Ukrainian drones to cross the battlefield and attack Russian positions. "More and more people started to feel uncomfortable," a former SpaceX engineer who worked on the development of the system told The Atlantic. Some of his colleagues left the company in protest. In September 2022, Ukrainian officials asked Musk to operate Starlink in the Black Sea. They wanted to use it for a surprise attack on Russian warships near the annexed Crimea. Musk refused. "Starlink is not meant to participate in wars. It was made for people to watch Netflix, relax, learn online and do peaceful things, not for drone attacks," he told his biographer Walter Isaacson around the same time. However, in late 2022, it announced the launch of a service called Star Shield specifically for military customers. This system is much more expensive to maintain than regular Starlink: up to 25 thousand dollars per month instead of 30. Read more on the Dodge website.