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Russian commanders continued to assure their troops that communications would soon be restored.
In February, SpaceX restricted access to Starlink, allowing only terminals on a “whitelist” to operate. Ukrainian terminals were permitted, while Russian ones were blocked. Since then, about 388 square kilometers have been liberated in southern parts of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where Russian forces had previously been advancing rapidly, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to open-source analysts, February became the first month since 2023 in which Kyiv regained more territory than it lost.
“Previously, if the enemy spotted our group — even a single soldier — they would immediately attack with all available forces,” said Oleksii Serdiuk, commander of the “Bratstvo” unit within the “Tymur” special forces.
He recalled an incident when Russian forces detected a group of Ukrainian soldiers in a building. Two drones struck the structure, but no follow-up attack occurred because commanders failed to quickly relay the coordinates to other drone operators. This allowed Ukrainian troops to relocate.
“This gap between target detection and response became critical for them,” he said.
According to Ukrainian soldiers, some equipment heavily dependent on Starlink — including ground drones — also became significantly less effective. Russian commanders had relied on the system to tightly control infantry movements. An officer of the Russian Volunteer Corps, call sign “Sever,” said captured Russian soldiers were sometimes ordered to move together with a Starlink terminal and send video proof of their location to demonstrate they had not deserted.
“With Starlink, they maintained strict control over their units. Now that level of control is gone. Without Starlink, these soldiers are isolated. They don’t know what’s happening beyond the buildings where they are hiding,” he noted.
At first, Ukrainian officers said, Russian commanders kept assuring their troops that communications would soon be restored. Soldiers repeatedly rebooted their terminals, allowing Ukrainian forces to locate them and carry out strikes. Eventually, without Starlink, Russian troops were forced to rely much more on radio communications.
“We began hearing direct orders over the radio — where units should move, which settlements they planned to capture, which routes to take. Sometimes we even heard plans for the next day,” said a signals intelligence specialist from the Tymur unit.
Ukrainian forces exploited this by launching counterattacks, including small groups operating behind enemy lines.
“It gave us a real advantage — we were able to exploit their weakness precisely when their command system was destabilized. In intercepted conversations, we heard them ordering retreats because they believed our forces had already broken through,” said a commander with the call sign “Luna.”
Russian forces in Ukraine are facing communication problems due to a dual blow — restricted access to Starlink and the blocking of the Telegram messenger in Russia. The loss of these services has slowed frontline operations, according to pro-Russian military channels, as well as Ukrainian and European diplomats and analysts.
To compensate for the loss of Starlink, Russia has reportedly deployed a stratospheric unmanned 5G platform, “Barrage-1.” The system can carry payloads of up to 100 kg at altitudes of up to 20 km and is equipped with a pneumatic ballast system that allows it to adjust altitude and use wind currents to control its movement.
