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Elon Musk appears to stop Moscow’s forces using internet service they rely on to operate weapons
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Russia is facing a “catastrophe” as its armed forces find themselves cut off from vital Starlink internet satellites, which the military uses to operate weaponry including drones.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Thursday asked those in Ukraine to register their Starlink terminals. The update was followed by a flurry of alarmed social media posts by Russian accounts suggesting they had been cut off from the service along the front lines.
The “enemy at the front doesn’t have a problem, the enemy has a catastrophe,” said Serhiy Beskrestnov, adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhaylo Fedorov.
Three commanders told the Kyiv Independent they had intercepted messages by Russian forces suggesting large numbers were being cut off.
Officials from Moscow and Kyiv have ended a second round of talks in Abu Dhabi, both sides speaking positively of the meetings.
Kyrylo Budanov, the top aide to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said the two-day negotiations were “really constructive”. Mr Zelensky said they would continue.
US president Donald Trump on Thursday rejected an offer from Russian president Vladimir Putin to voluntarily extend the caps on strategic nuclear weapons deployments after the treaty that held them in check for more than two decades expired.
“Rather than extend “New START … we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He was responding to a proposal for the sides to adhere for a year to the limits set by the 2010 accord on deployments of strategic nuclear warheads and the missiles, aircraft and submarines that carry them.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says the next round of talks on a settlement to the war is likely to take place in the United States.
“What can already be said is that the following meetings are planned in the near future. Likely in America,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“We are ready for all workable formats that can genuinely bring peace closer and make it reliable, lasting, and such that deprives Russia of any appetite to continue the war.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says further US sanctions on Russia depend on talks aimed at ending the war.
Mr Bessent, who participated in talks with Russian officials and President Donald Trump’senvoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on January 31, said he would consider sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet.
“We will see where the peace talks go,” he said, saying US sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil had helped bring Russia to the negotiating table.
Melania Trump has confirmed she remains in direct communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s team, pursuing efforts to facilitate the return of more Ukrainian children from Russia.
The announcement comes amid ongoing international concern over the thousands of children allegedly abducted since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, she stated: “I’m working on it, and we are in the process. I hope we have success very soon.”
Details regarding the nature of these discussions were not disclosed.
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Sweden’s government said on Thursday it will provide aid to Ukraine’s energy system worth 1 billion Swedish crowns (£82 million).
Energy infrastructure has come under sustained and heavy attack by Russian forces, particularly in the first month of 2026.
On Thursday SpaceX founder Elon Musk asked those in Ukraine to register their Starlink terminals. The update was followed by a flurry of alarmed social media posts by Russian accounts suggesting they had been cut off from the service along the frontlines.
The “enemy at the front doesn’t have a problem, the enemy has a catastrophe,” said Serhiy Beskrestnov, advisor to Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, on Thursday.
Three commanders speaking to the Kyiv Independent reported intercepting messages by Russian forces suggesting they were being cut off in large numbers. The military uses the service to operate its military weaponry including drones.
US president Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has said he left his role at the White House to speak more freely about the war-hit nation.
Kellogg had told associates he was set to leave the administration in January, in a departure that would mean the loss of a key advocate for Ukraine in the Trump administration.
The retired three-star US Army general quit his role on 31 December and joined Washington’s America First Policy Institute.
“I wanted to spend more time on the outside where I could be much more open and free to talk about Ukraine than I was inside the government,” Kellogg told the Kyiv Independent.
Special presidential envoy is a temporary designation, and such envoys in theory must be confirmed by the Senate to stay in their positions past 360 days.
Kellogg had indicated that January would be a natural departure point, given existing legislation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
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