The rupture between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over last week’s diesel deal deepened Wednesday after an Elon Musk-owned satellite system used by Ukraine unexpectedly restricted service — undercutting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
Why it matters: The Ukrainian military uses SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications system to control and operate its reconnaissance and intercept drones. When Starlink doesn’t operate at full capacity, Ukraine’s ability to gather intelligence, use interceptor drones and conduct long-range strikes against Russia is impeded.
Service was partially restored Wednesday, but Ukrainian officials were still searching for answers about why the service was throttled and who was responsible.
The limitations came days after a new crisis erupted between the U.S. and Ukraine over Trump’s agreement to lift sanctions on Russian oil sales. Zelensky criticized the move, then Trump called for Ukraine to elect a new president.
A senior U.S. official said the Trump administration had nothing to do with the alleged Starlink service constraints. But Ukrainian officials remain suspicious.
A prominent House Republican warned Wednesday that President Trump’s legislative wish list will be “dead” on Capitol Hill during the lame-duck session unless the administration reverses recent moves that could help Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), an Air Force veteran who sometimes spars with the White House on foreign policy, said the recent developments — including reports that the U.S. has stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv — are benefiting an oligarchic adversary at the expense of a democratic ally… If those policies don’t change, he warned, Ukraine’s defenders in the House — including some Republicans — will block the entirety of Trump’s post-midterm agenda.
“The Administration’s decision to reduce intel sharing to Ukraine & access to Starlink equates to aiding the invader & the war criminal who bombs cities,” Bacon wrote on the social platform X. “Does the Administration think it will get ANY support for the remainder of the 119th Congress? Their agenda is dead unless they change paths.”
Seems to me that the problem is that Article Five is only considered to denote major defensive action. Like, “If Russia invades Poland, we mobilize 200,000 troops to kick Russia out.” That sort of scale.
Against minor pinprick attacks, though, Article Five goes un-invoked. It would be more useful if it were regularly invoked to say, “An attack on one is an attack on all, but there’s no need for major retaliation, just equally tiny reprisals will do.”
Well, Trump’s getting exactly what he said he wanted: for Europe to (have to) defend itself with a lot less support from the USA. European planners must now be painfully aware that Trump wouldn’t lift a finger to save them from Russia.
I still think that Trump’s creation of the Space Force was intended (by whoever actually came up with the idea, obviously not Trump himself) as a distraction from the real new force we need to create, a Cyber Force. Because right now, we’re basically not defending ourselves at all against Russia’s constant attacks.
We already have a U.S. Cyber Command. It grew out of capabilities that were closely tied to the National Security Agency, the U.S. government’s primary signals intelligence and code-breaking organization. The two are so intertwined that they have traditionally shared the same commander under a dual-hat arrangement. Cyber Command (2009) is actually older than Space Force (2019).
The argument for creating the Space Force was not that the United States lacked space capabilities. Rather, space operations had become so important to modern warfare that they deserved a dedicated service. GPS, communications, missile warning, reconnaissance, and other space missions were spread across multiple organizations, and advocates argued that consolidating them under a single branch would reduce duplication, improve focus and long-term development.
Or maybe you mispoke. If you were arguing for the creation of a new branch just for Cyber, I would say maybe. Many of the same arguments apply. The United States already has significant cyber capabilities spread across Cyber Command, the NSA, the military services, and other agencies. I don’t know enough about the details to have an opinion on whether that is a good idea yet.
Yes, that’s what I was arguing. We clearly need a stronger capability for fighting cyberwarfare, because that’s the way that Russia is currently waging war on us, and unifying all of our cyberwarfare capabilities under one branch designed just for that seems like a good first step in that.
Maybe this is the wrong thread but can anyone give some examples how elected Republican officials, when pressed, justify Trump’s approach to the war? Do they just ignore it? Dodge questions? To what extent has this been part of debates in the mid-terms? IMHO, this is such a cut and dry issue that I can’t fathom how anyone could support Russia the way Trump has. Other than boot-licking sycophants, of course but I’m talking about rational people.
What I’ve read in the news is that asides from the bootlickers, Republican politicians are strongly opposed to taking Russia’s side in this in any manner, for any reason (including the spurious lure of Russian petroleum).
The White House is on its own in this. They’ve mostly lost Congress, as much as that matters.
@MikeF, if you type out “maybe this is the wrong thread” you’ve generally answered your own question. Please take further discussion to a Trump specific thread. Yes, it’s not absolutely 100% off topic, since it’s at least about why Republicans aren’t calling out Trump’s actions, but it’s always going to lead to an extended Trump debate which have plenty of other threads.
Not to mention, the language here:
Is probably better suited to the Pit.
No warnings, but no more of this particular tangent in this thread.
Immediately, Congress should hold hearings, demanding testimony under oath from Defense Department and other administration officials about the chain of events that led to restrictions that facilitated Russia’s suspiciously timed attack.
…too many dark signs point in the direction of an American administration — at the very moment it was seeking Ukraine’s capitulation and threatening to leave it defenseless by denying intelligence — taking conscious action that left Ukraine exposed to an intense attack, which Russia just happens to have conducted right at the perfect time.
There is a rift in the Republican party over Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine. Some House Republicans broke ranks a few months ago to vote in favor of a bill providing security assistance and arms to Ukraine. These Republicans believe Russia is a threat to U.S. security and allowing him to win in Ukraine hurts our interest. There are MAGA sycophants who argue they want peace out of a desire to end the ongoing conflict that’s resulted in many deaths or they want to align with U.S. economic needs. Nobody’s fooled by them though.
Romania (NATO country) shot down 2 Russian drones on Saturday.
Looks like the drones entered Romanian air space and were shot down within a couple minutes by F-16s. To be shot down that quickly they must have had the jets in the air prepared for this.
Drones are (generally) not fast airplanes. If the Rmanians detected them some distance away heading towards Romanian airspace they would have had time to scramble some jets who’d then be waiting for the drones to cross the border.
Had the drones turned away or crashed or whatever before crossing the border presumably the Romanian jets would have gone home unused.
As a completely unforseen outcome of Elon Musk ratfucking Ukraine’s Starlink lifeline, Ukraine is reaching out to Europe (more) to encourage development of a low-altitude Internet satcom constellation outside the oh-so-reliable mercies of the US.
Finland seems to be the first to step up, as Nokia and ICEYE (a Finnish Earth-observation microsat operator) have made identical public statements in support of the idea.
outcome of Elon Musk ratfucking Ukraine’s Starlink lifeline, Ukraine is reaching out to Europe (more) to encourage development of a low-altitude Internet satcom constellation outside the oh-so-reliable mercies of the US.