Soldiers on Ukraine’s front line suffered a communications blackout for more than two hours last night following a major outage on Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink.

In a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian army said Starlink terminals were down across the front line, disrupting combat work and reconnaissance.

It added that the outage, which lasted for 150 minutes, was the longest in the war against Russia so far.

Starlink, which is part of Mr Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite broadband services that beam down signals from space, helping to provide coverage in remote areas. It has played a crucial role in supporting Ukraine’s campaign.

Mr Musk initially provided Starlink terminals to Ukraine for free in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, though the Pentagon has since handed a contract to the company to ensure continued coverage.

In addition to its military use, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians also depend on the service, which has been deployed to restore internet connections in hospitals, schools, businesses and aid organisations.

In total, there are around 42,000 terminals in use across Ukraine.

Over-reliance fears

However, Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink has been a continued source of tension given the erratic nature of Mr Musk’s behaviour.

In March, the Tesla billionaire boasted that Starlink was the “backbone of the Ukrainian army”, adding: “Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”

The comments fuelled concerns about Mr Musk’s influence over the war, especially after Donald Trump halted military aid and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine following a disastrous meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.