Just watched a piece about the Intel and the threat of switching off Intel.
As usual, it's not so back and white and there is no 'switch'. Sure, the US can switch off their intel.
'Intel' is a patchwork of current targets, cyber information, movement of personnel etc etc It is multifaceted.. Oil refineries don't move. Ukraine knows where they are. Ukraine knows where the data centres are and where the factories are.
The US paused Intel in 2025 - it didn't really hit the headlines as Ukraine has been been budling bridges and sharing information with France, UK, Finland and Japan ever since as leaning on one source so heavily puts you at risk.
In fact, as a slight digression, Musk has been begging the Indian govt. to buy Starlink access.
Elon Musk publicly criticized the Indian government and billionaire Mukesh Ambani on X, accusing them of delaying Starlink's commercial launch for over four to five years to protect a telecom monopoly.
However, as soon as they saw Musk shutting off Starlink, the Indian govt. said no. They did not want to be defenceless at the flick of a switch.
The Finns have the ICC satellite system, the French and UK have their own and the Japanese have ISQS, the Germans have also got a network.
Where the current switch off of Starlink really matters, is live targets - ships, boats, defence systems, missile launchers - stuff that moves and of course, tracking of incoming missiles.
The fixed physical targets will always be there and Ukraine should be able to continue hitting them.
We hope that this pause is temporary. It also may backfire on the Americans who are using Ukrainian intelligence to defend targets in the gulf plus there are thousands of Americans in Ukraine who have now become more vulnerable.
