Starlink has suspended all nighttime operations over Ukraine, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky said, confirming that the satellite network now powers down at dusk and resumes only at sunrise. «The satellites are asleep,» the adviser said. «We have asked them to work nights. They have declined.»
The restriction has forced the Ukrainian military to compress its entire war into daylight. Commanders now schedule reconnaissance, targeting and strikes between sunrise and sunset, and units rehearse dawn offensives every morning at 4 a.m. so that no minute of connectivity is wasted. A new timetable issued to every brigade lists «first light» as the busiest hour of the day and «last light» as the deadline for all operations.
Villages along the front have adjusted. Bakeries open at 3 a.m. to feed the dawn rehearsal. Schools moved their first lesson to 5 a.m. so children can watch the drones go up. The national railway added a 4:15 a.m. express to the eastern front, which the conductor announces as «the Starlink train.»
Western intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the arrangement is being studied as a model for other allied networks. «If the satellites need rest, we will give them rest,» one said. «We are not monsters.»
By evening, the sky over Kyiv was quiet, the terminals dark, and the whole country waiting for morning like a held breath.