Russian occupiers have become much more efficient thanks to Starlink terminals - Washington Post
The effectiveness of Russian troops in Ukraine has increased markedly since they began actively using Starlink satellite terminals.
This is reported by The Washington Post, Censor.NET reports with reference to UNIAN.
It is noted that the supply of these terminals to Russia is banned under US sanctions. However, there is a black market for Starliners in Russia.
Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the authors of the publication criticized Elon Musk personally for not doing enough to block Russians from using Starlink terminals. They doubt that the American billionaire really wants to solve this problem because, in their opinion, he probably has a favorable attitude towards Russia.
Starlink terminals in the Russian army
According to the newspaper, at the beginning of the full-scale war, Russian troops relied heavily on radio to transmit what they were seeing and doing during battles. Instead, the Ukrainian Armed Forces relied on Internet communications via Starlink, and this was a significant advantage. Now, the Russians are mirroring Ukraine, using Starlink in a similar way, the Ukrainian military says.
An officer of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, which had been defending the Vuhledar area since 2022 and was recently forced to withdraw, described Russia's use of Starlink as an important factor in addition to their numerical superiority.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russian troops are currently using Starliners to coordinate their assaults and artillery and bombardment.
"Previously, the Russians could not control some of their movements, manoeuvres, artillery, and infantry," said Yevhen, a drone platoon commander with the 93rd Mechanised Brigade. According to him, this situation has now changed.
Where do Russians get Starlink terminals?
The newspaper's own analysis showed that Starlink terminals are freely sold in Russia for a thousand dollars, which is not much higher than their cost in other countries. The terminals are linked to foreign phone numbers and mailboxes to avoid blocking.
Users in the "customer support" chats of Moscow stores selling these terminals say that it is easy to buy and register Starlink sets abroad. Most are sourced in Europe and transported through the United Arab Emirates. One supplier said that the connection for devices bought in the European Union can be blocked after 90 days of use; one solution is to register with Ukrainian data.
How to solve the problem
According to The Washington Post, Starlink can disable individual terminals based on their identification numbers, or block entire areas on the planet's surface from receiving a signal. A source familiar with Starlink told the publication that the company is technically able to locate active terminals based on their pings to satellites, but it can be difficult to identify a user on the "front lines of the battle zone" where Ukrainian and Russian forces are operating very close to each other.
At the request of journalists, the Pentagon and SpaceX said that they were fighting the problem of Starliners in the Russian army, but did not provide any specifics.
