The Starlink satellite internet service, owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, suffered a global outage on Monday that left millions of users around the world without connection and, most critically, cut off Ukrainian troops who depend on the system on the front lines. In Ukraine, where Starlink has become the backbone of both military and civilian communications following the collapse of much of the traditional infrastructure due to Russian bombings, the failure caused a total blackout in several key combat zones.

“Starlink has failed again across the entire frontline,” reported Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Drone Forces, on social media, according to the Kyiv Independent. Brovdi explained that the outage disrupted the control of combat drones and the coordination of strikes on Russian positions—two strategic tasks for the Ukrainian army.

Although he later noted that the connection began to be gradually restored, he warned that the incident exposed the country’s extreme dependence on this foreign system to sustain its defense. The company acknowledged on its website that it was experiencing a “global outage” and that its engineers were investigating the cause, while the portal Downdetector received tens of thousands of reports from affected users worldwide.

So far, Starlink has not issued an official statement explaining the reason for the failure. This marks the second major disruption of the network in recent months, raising alarms about the resilience of a system that has become critical for Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Since then, Kyiv has received more than 50,000 Starlink terminals that provide satellite internet access to hospitals, schools, civilian shelters, and military units deployed on the front lines, filling the void left by destroyed telecommunications networks.

However, this dependence also carries a geopolitical risk: the system operates under the exclusive control of Musk, meaning Ukraine’s access ultimately depends on the decisions of the billionaire. Tensions are not new. During Ukraine’s 2022 counteroffensive, Musk reportedly ordered the temporary shutdown of the network over the Kherson region, according to Reuters, hindering key operations on the ground.

A year later, he refused to enable Starlink in Crimea to support a Ukrainian attack on the Russian fleet, which drew sharp criticism from the government in Kyiv. These incidents have intensified the debate over the disproportionate power that a single businessman can wield over the critical infrastructure of a country at war.