Russian forces are using electronic warfare systems to jam Starlink satellite internet, disrupting Ukrainian medium-range drone operations, Ukrainian commanders and drone operators told Reuters.
Ukrainian military personnel said Russian troops have begun installing powerful signal suppression systems near military facilities and populated areas. One such system, the Volna Kupol Garant, can disrupt Starlink over an area of about 20 square kilometers, according to the Ukrainian sources. Ukrainian forces have detected approximately 10 such systems.
Ukrainian medium-range drones are used to strike Russian supply lines, fuel depots, air defense systems, and command posts at distances ranging from tens to hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Most of these missions rely on Starlink, which allows pilots to remotely control drones and had long been considered nearly immune to jamming.
Sergei Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister, told Reuters that the jamming systems are produced by the Simferopol-based company Russian Dome LLC. They are mounted on trailers with antennas and require significant power supply. The cost of one unit could be around $1.5 million, he said.
The jamming systems themselves have become targets for Ukrainian drones. A commander of the 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who uses the call sign Dirizher, told Reuters that his unit had struck two such systems, in one case jointly with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). “As soon as we struck this object, our drones connected to Starlink flew without problems,” he said.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, assessed that Russia is gradually achieving some success in countering Ukrainian medium-range drones. “If they ramp up production of electronic warfare systems, they could make the medium-range strike campaign more difficult,” he added. OSINT analyst Kirill Mikhailov agreed with this assessment.
A representative of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) research group told the outlet Agentstvo that the effect will depend on how quickly Russia can deploy these systems along the front line and how quickly Ukraine can strike new electronic warfare installations. The installations themselves are vulnerable targets: they are bulky, emit powerful signals, and can be detected by radio-electronic intelligence.