Russian Army: Starlink & Telegram Access Issues

These are images that have been posted on social media every day for years, making the war in Ukraine real. Both armies are using them in the hundreds of thousands; it is the first major war in which drones play a major role. They provide real-time images and are precise and deadly weapons. They are controlled with wafer-thin fiber optic cables or via radio channels, directly or via satellite technology such as Starlink.

In recent months, more and more videos of Russian soldiers appearing enthusiastic about American technology have appeared on Telegram. Easy to set up, easy to connect and easy to use. “Victory will be ours,” a Russian soldier is certain.

Starlink is US billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet. A network of thousands of satellites around the globe are connected and provide users with high-speed internet almost anywhere on earth. All you need is your own terminal.

Russia, which was actually sanctioned, smuggled thousands of these terminals to the front and used them to direct its drones deep into Ukrainian territory. “The advantage is that communication via Starlink is difficult to decipher and almost impossible to disrupt,” says Russian military expert Yuri Fyodorov in exile in Prague.

The larger command posts are of course connected by cables and are therefore harder to intercept or disrupt their communications, but as soon as it gets to the smaller units, easy-to-use technology like Starlink is invaluable. Ukraine, for example, has been using Starlink for years and has always had an advantage on the battlefield.

Because Russia gradually embraced Starlink, Moscow deprived Kiev of an important advantage on the battlefield. Not only in communication, but also large drones could more easily fly far behind enemy lines without a cable connection and, for example, attack supplies. But the military leadership in Kyiv sounded the alarm and Elon Musk reacted. He turned off Starlink for the Russian army. “There are some pretty panicked reports from Russian military correspondents who claim there is complete disorganization,” said military expert Fyodorov.

In order to use Starlink in Ukraine and the occupied territories, you must register on the Starlink site and prove that you are a Ukrainian citizen. Otherwise, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense will not give the go-ahead to Starlink for activation.

According to Ukrainian reports, Russia has already found a work-around and is forcing Ukrainian prisoners of war to register themselves or their family members. However, this will hardly bring the tens of thousands of Russian Starlink terminals back online.

It is difficult to say how important Starlink actually was for Russian warfare. But the reactions of soldiers, bloggers and nationalists in Russia speak for themselves. Especially because the Kremlin also massively slowed down the Telegram network, which is very popular in Russia, this week.

The Kremlin’s plan for Telegram is to lure Russians to the state-owned platform Max. The encrypted Telegram has long been a thorn in the side of those in power in Russia. The Kremlin apparently underestimated the fact that many soldiers at the front also communicated with it.

Dmitri Peskov said he couldn’t imagine Telegram being used to communicate at the front, which immediately triggered a gigantic shitstorm among the fighting soldiers.

Sebastian Ehm reports as a correspondent on Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.