GoKawiil
Tech News
A new report states that Elon Musk directed a slowdown of Starlink satellite internet service used by Ukraine. The report also notes U.S. envoy Tom Barrack's remark that Washington is no longer the guarantor of global security, and Netflix's disclosure of its slowest revenue growth in years.
Ukraine's 92nd separate assault brigade used a Heavy Shot AYUDAG 6 hexacopter drone, supplied free by manufacturer Gurzuf Defence, to evacuate a wounded soldier suspended in a harness from a battlefield position where Russian drones and mines made ground rescue too risky. The soldier, from the 30th separate mechanized brigade, had spent nearly 500 days at the position before the flight, which took about 1 hour 14 minutes, according to Gurzuf Defence and The Kyiv Independent. Ukraine's Army published video of the evacuation on October 19.
Ukraine's 92nd Assault Brigade and 30th Mechanized Brigade say they completed the first known drone evacuation of a wounded soldier, using a Gurzuf Defence hexacopter to lift an infantryman, callsign 'Kostya,' from a mined area roughly 11 miles behind enemy lines. The soldier was clipped into a harness and flown out while operators stayed in radio contact and accompanying drones guarded against Russian kamikaze UAVs.
Ukraine's 92nd Separate Assault Brigade released video it says shows the first evacuation of a wounded infantryman by aerial drone, after landmines and enemy drone activity ruled out ground vehicles. The soldier was strapped into a heavy-lift hexacopter, originally built as a bomber by a Ukrainian manufacturer, and flown to safety at low altitude. The brigade says the soldier is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation.
Tracking data shows Russia's Cosmos 2612 military satellite performed a maneuver on October 16 that brought it within roughly 3 miles of ICEYE-X36, a US-registered synthetic aperture radar satellite, after previously keeping over 200 miles away. Satellite tracking firm LeoLabs called the move a deliberate approach of uncertain intent, and the maneuver was made without approval from ICEYE, which operates a satellite fleet that has supplied imagery to Ukraine since 2022.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk both denied having caused a reported partial disruption to Ukraine's military satellite network this week. Neither offered an explanation for what did cause the outage, according to the report.
President Trump said Friday that neither he nor Elon Musk directed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield service to Ukraine's armed forces this week. Ukrainian officials had reported SpaceX cut off connectivity without warning for drones and vehicles exceeding 160 km/h, disrupting military operations, while Musk said the Starshield systems are government-owned and controlled.
Ukrainian military and government officials said this week that sudden restrictions on Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade satellite internet service, interrupted drone operations and communications. Commanders reported lost drones and disrupted missions tied to the outage, raising concerns about who controls access to the system.
Ukraine has carried out drone attacks over the past week targeting several of Yandex's major data centers, disrupting Russian consumer apps including shopping and taxi services in major cities. A Cloudflare report found that while the attacks caused real service outages, Russian bot-driven disinformation traffic was not eliminated but instead shifted to other hosting providers.
SpaceX operates Starshield, a secure satellite network built for government and military clients, separate from its consumer Starlink service. Reporting indicates some Starshield-related capabilities have become important to Ukraine's military operations during its war with Russia.
Cloudflare's analysis found that after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers cut Yandex Search and Yandex.Cloud traffic to 10-15% of normal levels, malicious bot activity largely migrated to other hosting providers such as Radist and Selectel rather than disappearing. Gambling-sector bot traffic rose slightly overall (167.7 million to 170.1 million requests, +1.4%), and Russian-origin social media bot activity fell only marginally, by 0.6% to 5.7% depending on the metric.
Ukrainian officials say Starlink/Starshield terminals moving above 100 mph stopped working this week, disrupting efforts to track and intercept Russian drones during intensified attacks on Kyiv. Elon Musk said any restrictions stem from the U.S. government, which he says owns and controls Starshield, pointing to the Pentagon and President Trump as the decision-makers rather than SpaceX.