20.04.2023, Washington.
The Russian military may be using secretive weapons to interfere with Starlink’s work in Ukraine, The Washington Post wrote on April 20.
The author of the publication suggests that a secretive electronic warfare (EW) system, Tobol, was used in Ukraine several months ago, according to a US intelligence report. This electronic warfare system interfered with the Starlink satellite system used by the Ukrainian armed units. It is unclear whether the Russian army was successful in disabling the Ukrainian armed units’ communications using this weapon.
Analysts at The Washington Post noted that satellite communications from Starlink play an essential role for Kiev’s operations and that the satellite system outages previously reported may have been caused by the use of secretive Russian weapons. At least seven Tobol EW system complexes were identified in Russia, three of which are believed to be used to jam Starlink.
According to researcher Bart Hendrickx, Starlink consists of many satellites, so it is quite difficult to interfere with its operation. However, even a minor disruption in satellite communications could cause significant problems for the Ukrainian army.
The Washington Post reporters were unable to obtain a comment from SpaceX. According to Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Zhura, Ukraine is aware of possible Russian efforts and is taking measures to neutralize them.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
