Photos show Ukraine’s Starlink strangled in Russian strike that killed 5 in park

Kharkiv, Ukraine – Yulia Spichak, a 34-year-old makeup artist living in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, dropped her son off at an English class on October 19 and sat in a nearby park to send a selfie to her sister, Alina. Seconds later, a Russian drone slammed into the park, killing Spichak and four others, including a 1-year-old girl.

The attack came six days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX limited Ukraine’s access to Star linkwhich Ukraine uses to coordinate its defenses against Russian attacks and for some of its offensive operations. In an article on X, Musk accused Ukraine of violating Starlink’s terms of service by also using it for attacks against Russia.

Ukrainian officials told CBS News that the restrictions imposed without notice affected ground-based air defense radars and drone interceptors, hampering the military’s ability to stop Russian strikes.

“It’s a critical piece of air defense infrastructure,” Vadym Ivchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker on the National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, told CBS News on Monday. “I can’t say that all other air defenses have stopped working, no. But this part is very essential for the defense of civilians in Ukraine.”

CBS News obtained photographs showing Starlink connectivity of Ukraine’s ground-based air defense radars dropping to 0.1 megabytes per second on Oct. 19, the day of the Kharkiv drone attack. That wouldn’t be enough to load a web page, let alone power air defense radars, according to a source familiar with the technology who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials confirmed that Starlink access had been restored across the country, with Musk admitting that SpaceX had limited connectivity.

“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes aimed at killing people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote on X. “The Ukrainian military violated Starlink’s terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes aimed at killing people. This loophole was closed last week.”

Ukrainian officials have also complained of connectivity issues with Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade network, which operates on the same satellite constellation as Starlink and serves as the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations. But Musk said the US government controls all changes to Starshield. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment, and the White House referred CBS News to President Trump’s comments last week, in which he told reporters he did not order the Starlink restrictions in Ukraine.

Alina Spichak, the sister of Yulia, the makeup artist who died during the strike in Kharkiv, returned to the park where she died Sunday with CBS News. She said the Russian Geran-4 jet drone that killed her sister arrived so quickly the victims didn’t hear it coming.

“I understand that everyone has their own life and no one wants to see these horrors. But I believe that the whole world should know what is happening in Ukraine, that there is a war here and we are under attack,” said Alina Spichak. “I really hope this ends soon.”