The United States has threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink satellite internet terminals if Kyiv does not reach a deal with the U.S. regarding critical mineral resources, Reuters reported on Feb. 21, citing three sources familiar with the negotiations.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20250222160934/https://kyivindependent.com/us-threatens-to-shut-off-starlink-if-ukraine-wont-sign-minerals-deal-sources-tell-reuters/
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Kinda shows how revolutionary starlink actually is, tho.
I mean, a country with minimal military spending (or, one that doesn’t have their own encrypted satellite network) can get a commodity device that gives modern connection speeds with very modest latency.
Starlink has many drawbacks, is a horrendous impact to the environment, is owned by a fascist/nazi dickhead.
But the empowerment it obviously gives to an underpowered military is phenomenal.
Ukraine has been awesome in their iteration and implementation of novel strategies and new technologies that few other counties could do.
It’s just a shame that one of the useful techs is being used as extortion by fascists.
It’s like enshitification, but on a country level scale.
Edit:
Compared to the Gaza situation where AI is being embraced to kill civilians faster
Indeed, that’s how it was sold. But that’s not what it ever really was. What it really is, is a big fat on/off button in the hands of a private corporation, and the nation where that corporation is based. It’s generally a bad idea to put the on/off button of your entire military into the hands of an outside power, as is made abundantly clear now.
This kind of technology isn’t really feasible for smaller nations to establish on their own. The only countries that should ever rely on Starlink, or it’s equivalent, are countries that either control it, or countries that are already vassals of countries that control it.
Not like Ukraine exactly had a lot of options at the time, of course…
uh… okay but the alternative is what? no reliable satellite communications for their military… so a big fat on/off button in the hands of someone horrible is better than just off? they can now choose how they want to proceed - that’s still better than having no choice
Presumably encrypted radios?
muuuuuuuch more limited range, bulky, less utility (can’t easily send maps, photos, etc) - i’m not saying they don’t have options, just that the options aren’t really comparable
also, i think i read somewhere that starlink was proving surprisingly resilient to jamming