DEFENSE“Starlink” for Ukraine is nearly over due to a lack of funding
Modern Diplomacy
Ukraine’s fears that its troops  may lose access to Elon Musk’s crucial Starlink internet service deepened after 1,300 of the military’s satellite units went offline, according to two sources familiar with the outage.

The small, easy-to-use satellite dishes made by Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX have been universally hailed as a game-changing source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay online even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia. 

But concerns have risen recently over the dependability of SpaceX after discussions about funding were revealed and outages were reported near the frontlines. 

CNN reported that SpaceX sent a letter in September to the Pentagon claiming it had spent almost $100 million funding Starlink in Ukraine and that it could no longer continue to do so. The letter requested that the Defense Department  take over more of the funding  for Ukraine’s military, which it calculated would run tens of millions of dollars a month. 

Neither Musk nor SpaceX responded to a request for comment. The Ukrainian government, including the Ministry of Defense, did not respond.

The recent outage started on October 24 and was described by one person briefed on the situation as a “huge problem” for Ukraine’s military. The terminals had been disconnected, this person said, due to a lack of funding.

The outage affected a block of 1,300 terminals that Ukraine purchased from a British company in March and were used for combat-related operations. 

SpaceX was charging Ukraine’s military $2,500 a month to keep each of the 1,300 units connected, pushing the total cost to almost $20 million by September, the person briefed on the matter said. Eventually, they could no longer afford to pay, the person said.

Before the terminals went completely dark, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense made a request in early October to their British counterparts to pick up the $3.25 million monthly bill.

A British official said after discussions between the ministries “it was agreed there were higher priority military capabilities.” 

“We support a number of terminals that have a direct tactical utility for Ukraine’s military in repelling Russia’s invasion,” the British official told CNN. 

The September letter from SpaceX to the Pentagon said there were almost 20,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine. At that time, by SpaceX’s own admission, the majority of them were fully or partially purchased with outside funding, including from the US, Polish and UK governments. The letter claimed those sources paid for about 30% of the monthly connectivity bill as well.

Earlier this month, Musk said that of the more than 25,000 terminals now in Ukraine, fewer than 11,000 were paying for the service, which can run as high as $4,500 per month.

“We continue to discuss Ukraine’s satellite communication needs with Ukraine and companies like SpaceX and others,” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Whether greater cooperation with SpaceX would give the US government stronger control over the Starlink signal in Ukraine has not been answered.

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Source: Communications systems to be improved by exploring NATO intelligence capabilities
The secrecy of Russian communication systems will be increased based on the experience of their use in Ukraine

MOSCOW, November 10 - RIA Novosti. The secrecy of Russian communication systems will be enhanced by the experience of their use in Ukraine, where NATO intelligence helps the Ukrainian troops, revealing all its capabilities, an informed source told RIA Novosti.
"The NATO bloc provides support to the Ukrainian armed forces with various reconnaissance means, the radio-technical systems of which are capable of effectively detecting sources of electromagnetic radiation. In this regard, work is currently underway to increase the secrecy of Russian army communications systems," the agency's interlocutor said.

He added that "the North Atlantic bloc, within the framework of the NMD, has actually revealed all its reconnaissance capabilities, which will be taken into account by Russian developers when modernizing and creating new models of equipment."
The degree of secrecy of communication systems demonstrates how difficult it is for the enemy to detect the operation of the complex, determine its type and location, and also reveal the content of the transmitted information.
According to open data, the Russian military uses a wide range of communication systems of various ranges in Ukraine. In particular, Ruselectronics enterprises in recent years have supplied more than 300 over-the-horizon communication stations with a range of up to 200 kilometres to the Russian troops.

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Translated from Voenacher:
35 servicemen of the LPR returned from Ukrainian captivity, Pasechnik, acting head of the republic, said.
#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
Good news!
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The roads of Ukraine continue to turn into mud, Ukrainian vehicles get stuck in the mud

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The Russian delegation at the G20 summit will be headed by Lavrov, RIA Novosti was told at the Russian Embassy in Indonesia.
Putin may take part in the G20 summit in video format.
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🤔 Two dead politicians won elections to the US House of Representatives ⬇️
.
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Preliminary results of the elections to the US Congress.

House of Representatives: Democrats 184 - Republicans 207.
For control, 218 seats out of 435 are needed.

Senate: Democrats 48 - Republicans 49.
For control, 51 places out of 100 are needed.
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🇺🇸NBC calculations on the results of the elections to the House of Representatives - it already gives the Republicans 222 seats, the Democrats only 213.
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Biden show continues.
Cognitive and speech difficulties are getting worse.

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Biden show continues.

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In Russia, in the city of Yekaterinburg, a terrorist attack in an administrative building was prevented, a suspect, a supporter of extremist organizations, was detained, RIA Novosti was told in the regional FSB.
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Thoughts for reflection. Read tha article here.

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