For the first time, Russia was able to disrupt Starlink at the front using powerful weapons – NYT

Russia used powerful weapon against Ukrainian Starlink/Photo depositphotos.com (illustrative)

Russia, before the attack on the Kharkov region, deployed advanced technologies to interfere with the Starlink satellite Internet, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces use for communications, intelligence gathering and drone attacks.

This is written about in The New York Times.

Russia uses a secret weapon against Ukrainian Starlinks

The publication said that before Russia's new offensive in the Kharkov region, soldiers of the 92nd Air Assault Brigade lost a vital resource – the Starlink satellite Internet service, which soldiers use to communicate, collect intelligence and conduct drone attacks. They noted that it suddenly slowed down extremely.

NYT emphasized that Starlink has been critical for the Ukrainian military since the first days of the big war with Russia. The current communication outages are based on increased Russian obstruction, they said.

Ukrainian officials say the Russians have deployed more powerful electronic weapons and more advanced means to disable the system Starlink.

The publication emphasized that these Russian successes pose a serious threat to Ukraine, which has often managed to outwit the Russian military with the help of front-line communications and other technologies, but is on the defensive from the new Russian offensive.

This appears to be the first time the Russians have caused widespread outages on Starlink. If they continue to succeed, this could mark a tactical shift that will highlight Ukraine's vulnerability and its dependence on the services provided by Musk's company, the report says.

It also said that because the United States and other governments partner with SpaceX, these outages also raise questions about Starlink's reliability against a “technically sophisticated adversary.”

In an interview This week, the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Mikhail Fedorov, said that Russia's recent attacks on Starlink were likely carried out using new and more advanced technologies.

According to him, the Russians are now “testing various mechanisms to disrupt the quality of Starlink communications, because this is very important to us.” The Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine added that Ukraine is constantly communicating with SpaceX to resolve problems.

The NYT added that SpaceX did not respond to the publication’s requests for comments.

“We are losing the fight against electronic weapons,” said the deputy commander of the Achilles strike unmanned battalion of the 92nd brigade, known as Ajax.

< p>“The day before the Russian offensive, Starlink just shut down, it became very, very slow,” Ajax added.

Former US Department of Defense official and expert Electronic Warfare Affairs Kari A. Bingen, said Starlink and other satellite communications can be disrupted by the use of high power radio frequencies that overload communication lines. According to her, invisible attacks are usually carried out from a vehicle with a large radio tower attached to the top.

The NYT emphasized that the explanation for the Starlink outages in Ukraine during last year are different.

Russia has gotten better at interfering with the signal between satellites and Starlink terminals on the ground, using powerful and precise jamming, several experts say. Others have speculated that the service has been disrupted by specialized electronic weapons mounted on drones, which can confuse GPS signals.

The sharp increase in Starlink usage could also degrade service. In some cases, technical restrictions aimed at preventing Russian troops from using Starlink have harmed the Ukrainian military's service on the front lines. At other times, outages can be more random, such as earlier this month when SpaceX reported service problems worldwide due to solar storms.

Starlink is not sold directly to Russia. But this year, Ukrainian officials publicly raised the alarm that Russia is using Starlink terminals purchased from third parties, potentially undermining Ukraine's communications advantage, they noted.

< p>The publication noted that experts had warned that Ukraine was overly dependent on one company that owns such a vital resource, especially on such an unpredictable person as Elon Musk. “But Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink is unlikely to decrease. There are few alternatives for such a comprehensive and reliable service,” the publication concluded.