Absence of Starlink in Russian army leads to cases of troops destroying their own electronic warfare posts — Southern Defense Forces
On the Oleksandrivka front, due to the absence of stable communications after the blocking of Starlink terminals, Russians are suffering losses of electronic warfare equipment from the actions of their own units, Southern Defense Forces spokesman Vladyslav Voloshyn said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.
"On the Oleksandrivka front, cases have been recorded of Russian electronic warfare posts of one of the units of the 36th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 29th Army being destroyed by strike drone crews of Russia’s 14th Separate Special Forces Brigade. Due to the fact that the enemy now essentially has no Starlink, they cannot establish normal communications," the spokesman said.
Voloshyn noted that due to communications problems, the occupiers currently cannot establish and stabilize their command and control system, so "there is no coordination in most Russian units located in the south."
"In connection with this, Russian drone crews are suffering large losses from their own electronic warfare equipment, from their own Russian units," the spokesman added.
As previously reported, on Jan. 25, radio technology specialist Serhiy "Flash" Beskrestnov, who became an adviser to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on technology issues, said Russians were likely using Starlink satellite internet on Shahed strike drones.
On Jan. 31, he reported that at the ministry’s request, SpaceX took measures to limit the functioning of Starlink systems in Ukraine to prevent Russian strike drone attacks, and on Feb. 1, American businessman Elon Musk reported resolving the problem of unauthorized use of Starlink on Russian strike drones at the request of Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
On Feb. 12, Fedorov called the communication problems in enemy forces due to the blocking of Starlink terminals "a good opportunity to seize strategic initiative" for Ukraine’s Armed Forces. "This is only the beginning of our asymmetric actions," he said.
