“They are like blind kittens,” a Ukrainian General Staff commander tells POLITICO.

Two days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink verification and blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine, the pace of Russia’s offensive appears to be slowing, a Ukrainian military official told POLITICO.

“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I am doubtful that starlink had any measurable impact.

    You can doubt all you like but there’s a lot of documented cases of Russia using SL on their drones and in their command bunkers, too many to be easily denied.

    Are they telling us that superpower Russia…

    Russia isn’t a superpower. In all ways but their nuclear arsenal they are at best a regional power.

    As if Russia didn’t have it’s won satelites, cell towers they could build, which are line of sight, and other methods like sending signals over power lines.

    Russia has very few satellites and perhaps only a handful of modern ones. They could build cell towers…and then Ukraine will blow them the fuck up, jam them, or listen to their comms. Signals over power lines? What power lines?

    I don’t believe that Russia is dependent on Elon Musk’s shitty satelite internet, which by all accounts is worlds worse than fiber optics.

    Again, what you believe may not match reality.

    • hector@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      18 hours ago

      It would not be the first time I overestimated Russia honestly, your criticisms there may not be without merit. The fact of the matter is Russia is fascist, and fascists don’t end up with good leadership or stewardship of the economy. Just as they don’t even make the components for advanced weapons systems that they once reverse engineered from western weapons (and consumer goods for that matter,) perhaps they’ve let their capability to make and use the internet languish.

      I am aware it’s not just me the military industrial complex has always overplayed the russians capability to justify higher spending. Even as other parts of the establishment show their failures.

      I guess however, if Musk’s satelites were an integral part of their operation they can’t replace, they failed. If anyone goes through a window, it should be whomever is in charge of making sure they had communications and instead took payoffs for overpriced projects that didn’t deliver, which is likely the case a thousand times over.

      They should have the capability, and especially now this far into the war, there is no excuse, this is rank failure of Russia, an example of how fascism/one party states don’t work.