ARTICLE
Elon Musk stops Russian killer drones from hijacking Starlink to strike Ukrainian cities
NEW YORK POST
By Caitlin Doornbos
Updated Jan. 29, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2026/01/29/us-news/elon-musk-shutting-down-starlink-on-russian-killer-drones/
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk is switching off Starlink systems on Russian killer drones after learning Moscow hijacked his satellite technology to strike Ukrainian cities, Kyiv’s defense minister said Thursday.
“Within hours of reports that Russian drones equipped with Starlink connectivity were operating over Ukrainian cities, the Ministry of Defense team promptly contacted @SpaceX and proposed concrete ways to resolve the issue,” Minister Mikhailo Fedorov wrote in a post to X.
Fedorov praised SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and Musk personally for what he called a rapid, decisive response.
The defense minister also pointed out that “Musk’s decision to urgently activate Starlink and send the first batch of terminals to Ukraine” after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 “was critical to the resilience of our state.”
Russian forces for weeks have increasingly been using Starlink “to extend the range of BM-35 strike drones to conduct mid-range strikes against the Ukrainian rear,” according to the Institute of the Study of War.
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