Musk blocking Russia’s drones delivered ‘enormous’ boost to

Russia’s drone campaign in Ukraine has been cut by up to 40 per cent, allowing Ukraine to regain territory, after Elon Musk blocked Russia’s access to his Starlink satellite network, according to one of Ukraine’s frontline generals.

Brigadier General Andrii Biletski, commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, says the impact of SpaceX switching off Starlink in areas of Ukraine now held by Russia’s invading forces has been “enormous”.

“After the blocking of Starlink for the Russians, the level of their efficiency compared to ours has sharply decreased, because Starlink is practically irreplaceable as a combat communication system,” he tells The Independent.

 

“Starlink can only be replaced with another Starlink. Therefore, the impact of Starlink on the current course of the war is enormous. In the last two weeks, there has been a significant deterioration in the effectiveness of Russian strikes, by about 20 to 40 per cent.”

Biletski, the founder of the Azov Brigade and later of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, is a former historian, a right-wing agitator, and a veteran of fighting in Ukraine since Russia’s 2014 invasion. He is now in command of about 12 per cent of the 1,300km front line.

His forces are concentrated in several brigades in some of the most violent parts of the front, where drone warfare has changed the nature of conflict into a 15km-wide “kill zone” dominated by drones, where soldiers hide and flit about in a blasted landscape.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has recaptured territory around Pokrovsk, north of Lyman, in his area of operations, and south, near Huliaipole, since Russia was denied Starlink access.

 

The small, laptop-sized Starlink units are the backbone of communications on both sides. They are also fitted to larger drones, and to Russian Shahed missiles, and are used for all battle communications on the ground.

In Ukraine, SpaceX provided free terminals in the early stages of the defence operation against invading Russians. But although Russia was a quick private adopter of the technology, Ukraine’s ministry of defence now believes Moscow has lost almost every terminal it was using in its operations here.

Biletski believes the damage to Russia’s capability may be long-term: “It’s a great opportunity for Ukraine, and I think – this is a subjective opinion – that within a month or two, [Russian forces] will partially regain their efficiency with the help of other means; Russian satellite communications and so on.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to the antenna for the Starlink satellite-based broadband system in Bakhmut (AFP/Getty)

“But they will never be able to fully restore the level of efficiency they had with Starlink in the foreseeable future. I don’t think we’re even talking about three or five years.”

 

So that’s been a significant strategic blow to the Russians – just that one flick of a switch?