It is remarkable how heavily the Russian army has relied on western technology during a war it claims to be fighting against the West. After Starlink terminals went offline on both sides of the Ukrainian frontline on Wednesday evening, Russian communications were sent into disarray. ‘The enemy at the front doesn’t have a problem; the enemy has a catastrophe,’ wrote Serhiy ‘Flash’ Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian defence adviser. ‘All troop command and control has broken down. In many areas, assault operations have been halted.’

The block was thanks to Ukraine’s newly-appointed defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov. After just a few days in office, he appealed to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deactivate Starlink terminals that were not officially registered in the country – which Russia has been using for drone attacks. The pair have history: on the second day of Russia’s invasion in 2022, when communication centres were being targeted by Russian missiles, Fedorov tagged Musk on Twitter and asked him to provide Kyiv with Starlink stations.........

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