Russian infantry assaults against Ukrainian positions fell off moderately following loss of access to the tactically critical Starlink satellite communications system by Kremlin forces and the widely-used Telegram messaging app – but they have not stopped, news and field reports, and official statements over the past week have shown.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company on Feb. 4 shut down gray and black market Starlink terminals operating in Russia and Ukraine, following a Ukrainian government request.
The switch-off did not significantly damage the ability of the Ukrainian military, widely using white market Starlink terminals, to digitally share battle intelligence and targeting information instantaneously, and in some sectors it gave piloted strike drones immune to jamming.
The access denial at the same time turned hundreds of gray and black market Starlink terminals used by Russian combat units for their own enciphered information-sharing and drone operations in Ukraine, into useless junk.
On Tuesday, Russian users of the Telegram messaging app reported critical slowdowns in access and data transfer speed, following a reported Russian state move to pressure Russian Telegram-users to shift to the state-developed app Messenger Max.
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