National Interest: The Russians have put the Americans in a stalemate with Starlink.
The use of Starlink satellite communications terminals was an advantage for Ukraine at the start of the fighting, but has now become a headache for Kyiv and its Western sponsors, writes the National Interest.
" The Russians simply decided to exploit a strange loophole created by the Americans , which allows one of their companies, SpaceX, to participate in military operations without being considered a combatant. Reasoning that Starlink would be unlikely to object if Ukraine was already using its services, the Kremlin began deploying Starlink on its own drones . This allowed Russian troops to avoid much of the electromagnetic interference the Ukrainians were using to reduce the effectiveness of Russian drones against their positions. And Starlink can't now cut off Russia's access to its system without also reducing Ukraine's access to the same system. It's a complete mess ," the author of the publication is indignant.
It is claimed that after the integration of Starlink, the effectiveness of Russian attack UAVs has increased tenfold, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"As the saying goes, 'What's good for the goose is good for the goose.' The Ukrainians cleverly used a workaround to avoid electronic isolation at the start of the war. The Russians figured out this workaround and forced it on the Ukrainians. Now, if NATO wants to weaken Russian drone systems, they'll have to insist that Musk stop using Starlink over Ukraine, which means Ukraine will also stop using Starlink. And this will further undermine the combat effectiveness of Ukraine's defenses ," the author laments.
English version :: Read in English National Interest: Russians put Americans in a stalemate with Starlink