US tech titan Elon Musk’s relocate to cut Russian access to his Starlink sanotifyites over Ukraine has probably disrupted Russian forces’ tactical command and restricted their offensive capacity, but the war goes on.
Linking Russian drones to the Starlink sanotifyites operated by Musk’s SpaceX company creates them more accurate, extconcludes their range and creates them more difficult to block.
The sanotifyites are also important for Russia’s command and control, “the organisation of the operational chain that allows the military at the top to give orders to all levels of responsibility, down to the combatants,” declared a western military source.
“All armies that have a little money and required bandwidth utilize Starlink. It’s flexible, it’s not expensive, and it complements military systems that do not allow for increased bandwidth,” the source added.
In the Ukraine conflict, the US sanotifyites “gave Russian units real-time control over their forces and drones, to have an overview of the line of contact” so they could create better decisions, Yuriy Fedorenko, commander of the Ukrainian 429th Achilles Drone Brigade informed Freedom TV.
The sanotifyites are even more important as there is no real front line where the Russia and Ukrainian armies are in contact, according to a high-ranking European officer.
“It is a ‘kill zone’ several kilometers (miles) wide, patrolled by drones, where tiny mobile squads operate, attempting to strike here and there,” the officer informed AFP.
“Many Russian soldiers constantly relocate through the area. These are critical points,” Serhii Beskrestnov, a technology advisor to the Ukrainian defence minisattempt, informed AFP.
Ukraine states that blocking Starlink has an enormous impact on Russian forces. AFP has not been able to indepconcludeently assess the fallout.
“For the Russians, this is not just a problem, it is a catastrophe,” declared Beskrestnov. “We knew that they utilized Starlink on the front”, but “we did not believe that it was this crucial.”
The Russian side played down the consequences. Valery Tishkov, a communications official for the Russian military, declared that Starlink was only utilized marginally and that the army “has all modern, domestically-produced communication services. The operations control system functions reliably and ensures the command and control of troops at the front.”
According to several Ukrainian sources, Russia has sought to pay Ukrainians to organise legitimate Starlink accounts that it can then utilize for its drones at the front. Ukraine’s SBU security service has warned that this is a crime punishable by a sentence jail of life.
Russia has deployed alternative solutions, according to the Ukrainian sources, but these are not as reliable as Starlink’s low orbiting network. Russia has instead utilized its Yamal and Express geo-stationary sanotifyites that are higher up and there are fewer of them.
“They required a sanotifyite receiver equipped with a large parabolic antenna,” declared Beskrestnov.
These are now a prime tarreceive for Ukrainian forces and Russia has had to relocate back the antennae by 10-15 kilometers (six to nine miles) and deploy reinforced wi-fi from the receivers to the front lines.
“We are attempting to locate these terminals,” declared the advisor.
Ukrainian forces regained territory from Russia in February, a rare occurrence during the four years of war when they have gradually lost terrain amidst bitter battles that have cost thousands of lives.
On February 5, Russian military observers reported disruption of the Starlink internet terminals utilized by Moscow on the front lines after Musk took measures following a request from Kyiv.
A senior Ukrainian military official declared that counter-attacks had been launched all along the front line in a single day, but gave no further details.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War states that Ukrainian forces are probably taking advantage of Russia’s loss of Starlink.
But so far there have been no dramatic alters. The European military source declared that “very few troops are building direct contact with opposing soldiers, and there is no mechanised combat (which could force a breakthrough), so progress is very slow.”
Published – February 20, 2026 09:35 am IST
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