After the shutdown of Starlink terminals used by Russian units, and amid disruptions affecting Telegram, Russia’s army faced additional difficulties in command, coordination, and data exchange at the front. Sources and experts say this weakened coordination, though it did not result in a total loss of control.
Russian Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadaev told a State Duma information policy committee meeting that the authorities had decided, for now, not to restrict Telegram in the combat zone. At the same time, he said the military should eventually switch to Russian services. Shadaev also claimed that foreign intelligence agencies could have access to chats in the messenger.
“Starlink terminals have been disabled for two weeks already, but this has not affected the intensity or effectiveness of unmanned systems troops,” Deputy Defense Minister Aleksei Krivoruchko said.
However, a source in the Russian armed forces told the publication that Telegram remains noticeably slowed in his unit, with images and videos loading especially slowly. According to him, soldiers are reluctant to move to the state-backed MAX messenger because they fear greater transparency of their communications for commanders.
What is replacing Starlink
Military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko of the Information Resistance group says that in 2025 a large share of Russian frontline communications relied on “gray” Starlink terminals. In his assessment, they were used not only for links between units but also for strikes deep into Ukraine’s rear and for several drones, including Shahed-136, Molniya-2, BM-35 Italmas, and decoys of the Gerbera type.
After the terminals were disabled, Russian forces, Kovalenko says, began reverting to older communication schemes. Among the stopgap measures he lists are WiFi bridges, satellite internet based on Yamal and Express satellites, and tests of stratospheric 5G platforms under the Barrage-1 project. In his view, Russia has no full substitute for Starlink.
An anonymous analyst from the Conflict Intelligence Team offered a more restrained assessment. He says the Russian military can use fiber lines to headquarters, radio bridges, Ubiquiti equipment, mesh networks, and relay drones. These options are less convenient, require more resources, and are easier to detect, but they still make it possible to preserve at least part of the internet connection.
According to CIT, communication problems mainly reduce the speed of drone video transmission and weaken headquarters’ situational awareness. The analysts do not view this factor alone as the main cause of the slowdown in Russia’s offensive in January and February: they say the Russian army typically takes an operational pause during that period before a new campaign. Even so, the communications disruptions appear to have created additional difficulties for Russian forces and reduced their operational speed.