Starlink, US Aid Not Being Cut Off to Ukraine

The #WorldWarWoke ist / #NAFO celebrated Ukrainian occupation in Kursk Oblast is being caved in by the Russian Army, with Unternehmen: Wacht am Suzdha (our sarcastic reference to the Wehrmacht's code name for the Battle of the Bulge) on its last legs. Most likely Russian forces will continue surrounding the few thousand Ukrainian troops trapped in the small town (prewar population, 5,000), while their UAF comrades try to slip out in ones twos and threes, crawling under cover of darkness, hoping not to be spotted and killed by Russian drones or snipers. Having bypassed or destroyed every village strongpoint around the town, the Russian Army will keep tightening the noose on the drone-ravaged hell's highway into Suzdha, so that no Ukrainian attempt to breakthrough from Sumy Oblast timed with a breakout from the encirclement stands any chance.

Unsurprisingly when such a highly publicized fiasco occurs, some Ukrainian soldiers are crying zrada (the word for betrayal in Ukrainian), making videos blaming Elon Musk for turning off Starlink, or even alleging that their Starlink terminal station coordinates are being shared with the Russians. But the reported richest man in the world has denied on his platform X cutting off or even threatening to cut off access to Starlink, and there's no evidence to support the contention that either Starlink uplink or downlink data is being shared with anyone other than Uncle Sam/NATO. More likely, if Ukrainian Army Starlink operators and drone command basements are getting struck by GLONASS-guided glide bombs or Iskander tactical ballistic missiles, then Russian electronic warfare specialists have found some way to triangulate the uplink signal while the Starlink terminals in Kursk Oblast are (re)transmitting drone feeds back to their command centers in Sumy or Kiev. Which is proof almost every weapon in the NATO arsenal, no matter how highly touted at first, eventually faces a Russian counter. It happened with Bayraktars and later FPV drones, then HIMARS/ATACMs. So now Starlink, even with its high-speed low Earth orbiting satellites connection and wondrous low latency, which enabled it to be used for Ukrainian drones attacking Russia on the ground, in the air and on the Black Sea, is proving to be no exception to the rule.

Just a few days before the Russian volunteer shturmoviki broke out of a natural gas pipeline (which ironically, Zelensky had ordered closed to punish the Russians weeks earlier) into the Ukrainian-occupied Russian Federation town of Suzdha, ExitStrategyWorld Eurasia Editor Stanislav Krapivnik recorded a video on March 6th, 2025 discussing today's hot topics. Which are Starlink access for the Ukrainians, as well as US intel support for Ukraine. Stas contends that far from being cut off, the US satellite data is almost certainly still being shared with Kiev via the 5Eyes side door of the British. The main reason we haven't seen major cruise missile strikes is almost certainly due to the Brits and French running out of Stormshadow and SCALP missiles respectively to send, as well as Russian strikes on Ukrainian air bases, rather than a lack of targeting data. The US inventory of 1990s to early 2000s vintage ATACMs is running low and HIMARS are proving increasingly easy to intercept by Russian air defense systems.

Stas also discusses the flip flopping not only of Trump but of the Europeans, who after Trump humiliated Zelensky, have suddenly shifted back to super hawkish posturing. Even the Italians under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Stas says, are declaring that they won't be the weak link in NATO. Stas reflects on his time enjoying photo ops with the well-dressed Italian Army during his US Army officer days on a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. He jokes the Italians may be crap soldiers but they always have been fashionable.

Overall it's enough to make you laugh to keep from crying. But what recriminations will likely follow this crushing Ukrainian defeat in Kursk, after seven months of declaring victory and Western media claiming Ukrainians were mowing down brigade after brigade of Predator-cloaking device wearing, invisible North Korean soldiers, remain to be seen. It seems likely to us though that Zelensky has one foot out the door, if not in the grave politically. Zelensky is not pining for the fjords, but for his Tel Aviv or Miami mansions where he can enjoy Colombia's finest marching powder in peace. London has already been grooming its next, more popular and compliant puppet, General turned Ukrainian Ambassador to the Court of St James, Valerii Fedorovych Zaluzhnyi. The Brits already have Zaluzhnyi "warming up in the bullpen", making Trump-bashing speeches.

Note to Readers: Stas video commentary pieces on NATO and the Ukraine War will now be posted by ESW's Military Affairs columnist, Belisarius.