Russia's forces are searching for alternatives to Starlink after SpaceX's whitelist cut off their unauthorized access along the entire front line, Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on 17 February. HUR shared what it described as intercepted Russian radio communications in which soldiers complained about the quality of Gazprom satellite terminals — one of the few domestic alternatives available.
"It's ass" — soldiers on the Gazprom alternative
HUR said it has been recording Starlink disconnections across Russian-held positions along the entire line of contact. According to the intelligence agency, Russian troops turned to terminals made by Gazprom Space Systems as a substitute.
In one of the alleged intercepts, a Russian soldier described the Gazprom terminal bluntly:
"As far as I know, this Gazprom [terminal] is ass."
Another mentioned a neighboring unit's equipment:
"The neighbors have a Gazprom terminal, it works on Gazproms, over."
A third soldier complained that a large VDV (airborne) unit's Gazprom terminal "couldn't handle the video relay" to command posts.
HUR said the Gazprom terminals cannot compete with Western technology in connection quality and are practically unusable in combat conditions.
Russia’s occupiers had a 60-second Telegram kill chain. Their own government just turned it into a hours-long crawl
Five geostationary satellites vs. the entire front
Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) operates the Yamal satellite communication system — a network of five geostationary spacecraft: Yamal-202, Yamal-300K, Yamal-401, Yamal-402, and Yamal-601.
According to HUR, this is insufficient to fully cover the front line, as most of the Yamal group's satellite capacity serves civilian subscribers inside Russia. GSS has been under international sanctions since 23 February 2024.
Impact on drones, logistics, and coordination
HUR says that the Starlink shutdown has already caused serious problems with unit coordination, logistics, and the use of unmanned systems of various types — from ground-based to aerial.
On 1 February, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced that unverified Starlink terminals would be disconnected. Registration instructions appeared the next day, followed by whitelists of verified terminals.
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