Russia's front-line communications hit by curbs to Starlink, Telegram

By Alex Wickham, Alberto Nardelli and Daryna Krasnolutska

 

Russian forces fighting in Ukraine are facing communications problems from the dual blow of throttled access to Elon Musk’s Starlink mobile internet system and a Kremlin crackdown on the Telegram messenger service.

 

The sudden loss of the services has hampered frontline operations, according to complaints on pro-Russian military channels that are corroborated by Ukraine and European diplomats and analysts. That’s as Kyiv’s allies say its forces are inflicting heavier losses on Russia’s troops.

 

Musk said at the beginning of February that said SpaceX had taken successful steps to prevent what he called “the unauthorised use of Starlink by Russia.” That cut Russian forces off from Starlink terminals that had been smuggled into the country and deployed to combat zones in Ukraine for military communications and drone operations.

 

 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said authorized terminals used by his military were continuing to work, as he expressed gratitude to SpaceX for the “real time” intervention. 

 

Then on Feb 10, Russia’s Roskomnadzor communications regulator imposed new restrictions on Telegram, saying it failed to comply with national data laws. That outraged many Russian soldiers, who use the messaging app to communicate on the battlefield. 

 

Senior European diplomats told Bloomberg that they saw the impact of Russia’s communications struggles as significant. A Nato official said some recent Ukrainian successes on the ground had been possible because Russian soldiers lost access to Starlink. 

 

The Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces had been able to conduct some counterattacks in recent days “likely capitalizing on recent disruptions to Russian Starlink terminals and Telegram.” Its analysts said the inability to use the service was particularly impacting Moscow’s offensive drone operations, “preventing Russian forces from conducting these strikes at the same tempo and depth as in prior weeks.”

 

“The loss of Starlink is crucial because much of the fighting is done by drones, which account for roughly 60% of all fire damage across the front,” wrote analyst David Kirichenko for the Center for European Policy Analysis.

 

Ukraine’s intelligence services have said Russia was using thousands of Starlink terminals on the front line. Kyiv also said it had seen cases where Russia had pressed Ukrainian relatives of prisoners of war to register terminals on their behalf in an attempt to bypass restrictions. 

 

“Russians are looking for alternatives and will build them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We understand that what they lost is very painful for them and they will look for alternatives. We will try to block those too.”

 

Ukraine’s state security service sent a warning to citizens that Russia was trying to recruit Ukrainians to register blocked terminals, asking them to report such proposals.

 

“Elon Musk flipped the switch” and “our communications are in chaos,” said Yuriy Podolyak, a pro-Kremlin blogger, of the restrictions on Starlink. 

 

“We are burying this command and control capability,” Russian military correspondent Alexander Sladkov said of the Telegram slowdown. “Communication is more than a weapon, it is, forgive the cliche, the foundation of troop command.”

 

Bloomberg is unable to verify whether pro-Russian military bloggers are either on the front-line or publish accurate information.

 

Read More: Putin’s Crackdown on Telegram Slammed by Russian Propagandists

 

The disruption is happening as Russia is also curbing access to Telegram in an attempt to push citizens to use a government-backed messaging app, Max, which critics say lacks security protections.

 

Russia’s Defense Ministry broke its silence on the issue late Tuesday, acknowledging the shutdown of Starlink terminals while insisting there’d been no impact on the military’s command system. 

 

“Officials at command posts are provided with all modern domestically-produced communications services,” Valery Tishkov, head of the Russian army’s Main Communications Directorate, said in comments shown on state television. “The combat control system is functioning steadily.”

 

The operational difficulties come at an already challenging time for Russia’s front-line troops as the war nears its four-year mark. Bloomberg reported last week that Western assessments showed Russia is now losing more troops than it is able to replace by recruitment. 

 

The issue is further compounded by the fact that new recruits are often inexperienced, ill-trained and rushed to the front, a European diplomat said.

 

Ukraine has said 35,000 Russian soldiers were killed-in-action in December, with another 30,000 killed in January, up from a monthly average of around 25,000 in 2025. Russia lost about 9,000 more men than it was able to replace last month, according to Western officials.

 

British Defence Secretary John Healey said in an interview on Sunday that the mounting casualties meant Russia is increasingly reliant on foreign fighters from countries including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Cuba, Nigeria, Senegal and North Korea.

 

Healey said Russian losses had grown from around six to as many as 25 Russian for each Ukrainian casualty on some parts of the front.

 

Russian officials rarely disclose military losses, though Putin and his top generals have publicly insisted that fatalities are far smaller than those suffered by Ukraine.