00:00For the Russian army, you could say it's the fog of war.
00:03The Starlink terminals, which Moscow relies on to guide drones and coordinate attacks,
00:08have been deactivated.
00:10That's according to Ukrainian officials and military observers close to the Kremlin.
00:15The Starlinks are out of service.
00:17The alternative, as expected, is slow and won't keep up.
00:21Prior to now, turning off individual units being used by the Russians has proved difficult.
00:26But starting this week, under an agreement between Elon Musk's SpaceX, which runs Starlink,
00:31and Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, every terminal in the country is blocked by default,
00:37unless it has been manually registered and verified by the Ukrainians.
00:41On Thursday, Musk urged the Ukrainians to do so.
00:45It's a blow to the Kremlin, given the Starlink terminals allowed Russian forces to bypass
00:49Internet jamming systems and remotely control attack drones from a range of up to 100 kilometers.
00:56It's our Achilles heel, an experienced commander confided about Starlink.
01:01He then deployed the fiber optic cable all the way to the command post.
01:05I hope he wasn't the only one to have this foresight.
01:08Another consequence is the isolation of Russian troops on the ground.
01:12Assault units, particularly in the Kupiansk sector, are reportedly cut off from all outside contact.
01:19For Moscow, there are few alternatives to Starlink.
01:22Military experts say fiber optic cables are an option, but they would be labor intensive and
01:27expensive to install.
01:29in the F 실루沙
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