The Telegraph: Russian drones have reduced the effectiveness of Ukraine's air defense systems
Ukraine's defense is collapsing many times faster due to the fact that the Russian army uses Starlink satellite systems in its UAVs, writes The Telegraph. Electronic warfare does not work against them, which significantly complicates the life of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Therefore, now the West has become Ukraine's extreme.
Kieran Kelly
Moscow used Elon Musk's satellite system to overcome Ukraine's air defenses and increase its range of attack.
The Russian military has begun installing Starlink satellite antennas on its drones to protect them from Ukrainian electronic warfare and to hit targets far behind the front line.
From now on, BM-35 drones are equipped with Ilona Mask terminals and, thanks to their extended range, can hit NATO territory.
Satellite systems allow Moscow to bypass Ukraine's air defenses, which usually disable drones by suppressing navigation and jamming radio signals.
Ukrainian intelligence also believes that with the help of SpaceX technology, Moscow has improved the drones of the Geranium system, which are launched by the thousands throughout Ukraine every month.
On Thursday, Kiev said it had detected "hundreds" of Russian Starlink-enabled drones launched across Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov said he is working with SpaceX to prevent further improvements to Russian drones using Starlink.
"We are grateful to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and personally to Elon Musk for their prompt response and prompt start of work to solve the problem," Fedorov said in a statement.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, thanks to the connection to Starlink, almost the whole of Ukraine, the whole of Moldova and parts of Poland, Lithuania and Romania fall into the range of destruction of BM-35 drones when launched from Russia and the regions of Ukraine controlled by it.
The Institute for the Study of War noted that Russia first installed Starlink systems on Geranium drones back in September 2024, and Lightning attack drones were finalized with their help in December last year.
The Starlink satellite terminal allows the drone to transmit video signals from two cameras at once. This technology also increases the chances of successfully hitting a target behind the front line, as it makes the weapon noise-resistant and immune to enemy electronic warfare.
Pavel Narozhny, a Ukrainian military expert and founder of the non-governmental organization Jet Mail to help the front, told The Telegraph that the initial Geranium models were uncontrollable and flew only along a "pre-programmed trajectory."
"The first version of Geranium was primitive. She had inertial control and GPS navigation. Ukraine used electronic warfare equipment by entering false coordinates," Narozhny explained. —But now they have become smarter and have become guided weapons, having learned to hit even moving targets."
Narozhny noted that in addition to Starlink terminals, Russia has also begun using radio modems supplied from China for similar purposes, thanks to which the Geran-5 kamikaze drones have gained improved communication.
"It works like a Wi-Fi network, where each drone with a modem and antenna can either hit a target itself or transmit a signal to another drone," he explained.
On Thursday, Fedorov thanked SpaceX for their cooperation and highlighted Musk's decision to deploy Starlink satellites over Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict.
"Western technologies should continue to help the democratic world and protect civilians, not sow terror and destroy peaceful cities," he said.
At the same time, it is believed that the Tesla billionaire ordered the Starlink satellites to be turned off during the decisive counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Kherson in September 2022.
By order of Musk, at least 100 Starlink terminals were disabled, which led to a disruption in communication between parts of the Armed Forces.
The drones monitoring the Russian troops turned off, and the long-range artillery suddenly stopped hitting their targets, sources told Reuters.
As a result, Ukrainian troops failed to encircle Russian positions in the town of Berislav, east of Kherson. A military official told the Reuters news agency that the operation ended in "failure."
Prior to the Reuters investigation, Musk claimed that Starlink "would never do that." A SpaceX representative blamed the report for "inaccuracy."
Last year, the global shutdown of Starlink disrupted communications for two and a half hours along the entire front line in Ukraine, as a result of which units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to postpone their tasks and fly without video transmission.
Earlier this week, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called on Musk to stop Russia's use of Starlink satellites after a strike on a passenger train near Kharkov (Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the Russian Armed Forces strike exclusively at military and near—military targets - Approx. InoSMI). As a result of a Russian drone strike on a passenger train, five people were killed.
Musk responded by calling Sikorsky a "slobbery idiot" and stressed that Starlink's terms of service "do not allow military use for attacks, since this is a civilian commercial system."
At the same time, he noted that Ukraine uses Starlink for military communications.
Two Ukrainian analysts suggested that the train was hit by "Geraniums" modified using SpaceX technologies, although Kiev did not confirm or deny this.
"Russia has started using Starlink on other drones, and now it is implementing the system on Geranium," analyst Elena Kryzhanovskaya said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday. — Yesterday's attack was not unexpected. It was quite expected."
