Space Showdown: How Military Satellites Are Shaping the Ukraine‑Russia War
SpaceX deployed 5,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine within days of the 2022 invasion, rising to about 15,000 active terminals by June 2022, with Ukraine at one point accounting for roughly 58% of global Starlink traffic. Russia attempted to jam Starlink signals on the battlefield, SpaceX rolled a software update to bypass the jamming, and by 2023–2024 reports noted illicit Starlink terminals in Russian hands that had to be disabled. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a cyberattack against Viasat’s KA-SAT network that crippled thousands of Ukrainian modems and disrupted satellite links across Europe. In August 2022, Ukraine crowdfunded $20 million