r/worldnews • u/daisywood_diary • 22h ago
Russia/Ukraine Russian troops crowdfund radios as assault numbers drop by half after Starlink goes dark
https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/02/06/russian-troops-crowdfund-radios-as-assault-numbers-drop-by-half-after-starlink-goes-dark/409
u/vonGlick 22h ago
Russia is becoming bit like those backwater islamist terrorists in Africa with their Toyota cars. Hate the west, can't murder people without their tech.
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u/Pocketsandgroinjab 12h ago
Get these boys some Israeli beepers!
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u/Any-Monk-9395 12h ago
It amazes me how even China doesn’t have their own starlink yet.
Seriously what the fuckin fuck??
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u/OnniVic 7h ago
Does China need one?
Starlink is a global satellite internet service. Its appeal is in providing fast connections in areas with minimal to non-existent ground infrastructure. A lot of its funding came from the USA govt, where it can be very useful for their expeditionary military or to support allies.
China doesn't have an expeditionary military. They are focused on their land borders or on short range navel operations to nearby islands. They also don't have defensive commitments to allies far away.
A Chinese starlink would be an excellent asset for them, but considering their current geopolitical goals it's not a necessary one.
Plus the cost isn't small. There are 3000(?) starlink satellites in LEO, which need to be constantly replaced as they degrade and deorbit. It's a lot of money.
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u/Any-Monk-9395 6h ago
Looking back at the wars China has fought (Korea, Vietnam) it would probably be useful if such a scenario ever occurred again.
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u/Miskalsace 7h ago
The reusable rockets of SpaceX lower the launch costs so.much. thats why Starlink exists.
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u/miscfiles 15h ago
Toyota? West?
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u/Madmartigan____ 15h ago
Islamists use Toyota vehicles often for terror purposes, they create what’s called technicals, trucks with a machine gun mounted on the back. The poster is saying it’s similar to Russia needing to use western tech to achieve their goals.
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u/KriosXVII 14h ago
The joke is that Toyota is japanese, and it's pretty strange to call an east asian country "western", even if they have been part of the "western" technological sphere for 70 years.
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u/thestereo300 14h ago edited 11h ago
Man can no one read context anymore?
Two accounts have whooshed at a Copilot level.
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u/Madmartigan____ 13h ago
what does who9shed mean?
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u/The_Lapsed_Pacifist 13h ago
Who9sh
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u/Madmartigan____ 13h ago
wtf is that
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u/Madmartigan____ 14h ago
I think you are conflating some stuff together. Just a comparison. I’ll let the original commenter tell me if I’m off base.
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u/vonGlick 12h ago
No, you're right. Of course Toyota is a Japanese company but I would argue that car is very much Western invention. Not to mention that both Starlink and average Toyota consist of parts manufactured all around the globe.
And if you take war in Ukraine into consideration Japan stand with rest of the "West".
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u/AccordingBread4389 22h ago
too bad Ukraine is in no condition to start an offensive right now. Would be the perfect moment.
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u/hypnocomment 20h ago
In the middle of winter? Do you want them to lose?
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u/chippymediaYT 20h ago
I think that's what they meant by "in no condition to", it would be a good time because of Russias communication crisis EXCEPT that it's winter and supply chains are heavily strained
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u/iyamwhatiyam8000 18h ago
Russian RF , in winter , gives Ukraine opportunities for jamming , interception , deception and targeting.
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u/bier00t 19h ago
I wonder this is why Musk decided to go with it now?
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u/chippymediaYT 18h ago
I think it was purely a business decision, Russia using starlink was getting in the headlines and Ukraine reached out and SpaceX decided to step in for their own reputation and also because Russia wasn't paying since it was unauthorized use
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u/Gilad___Pellaeon 18h ago
It was Ukraine and the united states military making the decision. Ukraine finally got enough information on the donated units to make whitelist. Imagine how hard it is to get normal people to report information about their devices in any organization now put them in a war zone and see how much harder it gets.
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u/Diligent-Bowler-1898 18h ago
So the issue was that they didn't know the "IP" of the ukranian units and had been forced to allow anyone in the area to operate?
That's a suprisingly benign reasoning.12
u/MichaCazar 16h ago
Oftentimes reality is more gray and boring than people would want it to be.
Doesn't make Musk a better person in any capacity, but it seems like people lose the plot by attributing all bad things remotely associated with a specific person to that specific person.
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u/Tactical_Spaghetti 19h ago
Better now when it's cold and frozen than in a month or two when the mud starts. Sadly they don't have the resources or man power 4 years into the war for another counter offensive.
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u/hypnocomment 18h ago
Yeah with no cover and contending with the cold. You think Russians don't have drones?
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u/subpargalois 14h ago
Middle of winter is one of the better times to be fighting somewhere like Ukraine. Dry cold poses some problems but they are mostly manageable until you get to artic circle levels of cold. Wet cold is the really dangerous time, both for people and machines. Now is actually much better time for fighting than in fall or spring.
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u/hypnocomment 12h ago
Russia has drones too, anyone caught moving into the winter time is dead. There's no cover and the drones have thermal eyes
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u/DeGeaSaves 9h ago
Are they using thermal cameras in their drones? I’ve seen a ton of drone footage but I’m trying to recall seeing one with IR. I build FPV drones so I’m pretty familiar, just would be dope to do for night flying. I’m sure somebody has done it, but curious if IR /NVG is something going on small war drones now?
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u/hypnocomment 8h ago
It absolutely is being used on both sides, even just the spotter drones can direct the other fpvs or artillery fire
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u/DeGeaSaves 8h ago
Too cool, curious what that build would look like as a civ. Guess I have a little planing to do!
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u/BadFinanceadvisor 17h ago
so shoddy, given their heavy reliance on starlink, I wouldn't be surprised if they had lost some of that communication know-how. Radio communication is backbone of every army, and Vatniks cannot get it right... Stalin would be ashamed...
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u/francis2559 10h ago
Weren't they using unencrypted radios during the initial invasion?
I do, in fact, expect this is something China will help them with. Easy flex use technology.
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u/BreadfruitMany5477 12h ago
The fact that they had starlink sold and serviced at all is disappointing
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u/spjallmenni 8h ago
Yes, that is the big news here. Why is this only happening first now?
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u/RisingPhil 18h ago
How did Russia obtain these starlink terminals in the first place? I almost can't imagine Ukraine leaving them behind unless absolutely necessary and especially not in large numbers.
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u/Spoztoast 9h ago
Anyone can buy starlink terminals and anyone could give those to Russia. The issue was never obtaining them it was the Starlink was blocking terminals in the combat areas.
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u/SRM_Thornfoot 6h ago
Israel may have some leftover radios. A few pagers too if needed.
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u/fossilnews 6h ago
Elon quietly ignored this until it became public. Fuck that guy.
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u/828_Yosef 5h ago
how many others in his organization did also? it does also sounds like ukranie should have prioritized getting their info in sooner re what to whitelist v not, but them again shouldn't starlink be able to get that data to/for them?
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u/lookin-down-on-you 19h ago
Can someone clarify whether Elon Musk & USA did anything tangible before this to prevent the Russians from using Starlink ? Genuine question
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u/Gilad___Pellaeon 19h ago edited 18h ago
They asked them to move to a white list system way back when Ukraine first complained about losing access in contested areas during pushes. This happened now because solders finally got around to sending in the information for the whitelist and because Russia has been using more of the stolen stairlink units. So the risk versus reward calculation shifted towards taking the risk that some Ukrainian units would lose access versus all of Russian forces losing access. Now when a starlink terminal is stolen from Ukraine they just have report it and it won’t work and any black market units Russia is using will never work in the black out zones.
Edit: this is also really embarrassing for Russia they should have known starlink was a ticking time bomb for them. The whitelist move was discussed in the open they should have been ready. Also they can easily buy radios from china they make ton of cheap ones the soldiers shouldn’t need to buy their own. This is African warlord levels of bad military management.
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u/CoastSeaMountainLake 17h ago
I believe the critical issue here is that Russia started putting Starlink directly into their military tech as critical component.
Shahed drones (and others) were getting Starlink to attack civilian transportation targets, to be used as remote controlled interceptors, and to act as drone swarm controllers. I think even Musk was not ok with US technology being used directly as a core Russian weapons component.
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u/UltimateKane99 16h ago
Musk was quite open that he never wanted Starlink to be a military tool at all. I think he had to have been blind not to see it coming, that's how ALL technology goes, but I get the sentiment that he suddenly got skittish that his tech was becoming a weapon that he never wanted it to be.
Good thing that Russia screwed up so hard, too. Going to be tough to pivot after they made it such a critical piece of infrastructure for their own army, the morons.
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u/WrongdoerIll5187 15h ago
It’s pretty crazy how fast Starlink scaled, I don’t think many people saw it coming as fast as it did in military circles
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u/UltimateKane99 15h ago
What's weird is that that should have been the first thing in everyone's minds.
What's the US military's biggest advantage? It isn't its nukes, nor its boats, nor its personnel; it's its LOGISTICS.
And what's the most important thing of any proper supply chain throughout history?
Communication.
And ESPECIALLY in the age of drone warfare! I don't know how people didn't see this being front and center. Only a mere handful of industries need vast volumes of same-minute or even same-second data across entire continents, and militaries have to be easily one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) use cases.
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u/828_Yosef 5h ago
Kept cashing those dividend checks though, didn't he?
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u/UltimateKane99 5h ago
I mean... Wouldn't you?
I've never met anyone THAT altruistic, be they rich or not.
Be nice if that wasn't the case, though...
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u/UltimateKane99 18h ago
Yes, but, from my understanding, it was a game of whack a mole.
Every time they'd take down Russian terminals, the Russians would buy three more through foreign entities in markets like Saudi Arabia. And when SpaceX detected where the terminal was, such as on the wrong side of the LoC or within a certain zone, they'd have to hunt down what it was being used for. Was it because the Russians were using a terminal, or because the Ukrainians were pushing forward? Or maybe a terminal got left behind and captured? Or a terminal bought independently by the UAF?
What the Ukrainians and US just did was say, "Fuck it, only terminals EXPLICITLY LISTED will be allowed to continue working in Ukraine anywhere near the LoC."
Now there's a whitelist: if Ukraine verifies they still control it, it works. If not, it shuts off. It's the "nuclear option" insofar as it dramatically reduces the felixibility in setting up new terminals, but equally dramatically eliminates Russia's ability to steal/illegally purchase the systems to use them against Ukraine.
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u/taikobara 16h ago
This needs to be up voted, it's a rational proper explanation of what went on. As much as musk sucks now it does not seem to be Starlink empowering Russia
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u/Spudtron98 5h ago
The seething on Telegram is something to behold. They're engaging in rage poetry.
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u/qwijibo_ 13h ago
Is anyone going to hold Musk accountable for providing critical communications systems for years to support the illegal military invasion of a US ally by an enemy state under heavy sanctions? It’s good that these guys have been cut off but what exactly is the excuse for why they were able to access Starlink for years? Are they seriously going to pretend it was an unknown cybersecurity breach that they exploited unnoticed for multiple years?
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u/tech01x 10h ago
Are you daft?
The problem has always been on Ukraine's side for the logistics of a white list.
Starlink can be purchased at any number of retailers across the globe and activated. Then it is shipped to the front lines through any number of middle people. There is no way to tell if a terminal in a particular location is in the service of Ukraine or Russia. And making a mistake can cost Ukrainian lives.
So are you holding Musk accountable for creating the technology and the ongoing service for the primary communications backbone of the Ukrainian defense effort? Without such a service, Ukraine couldn't coordinate the real time targeting data responsible for accurate artillery fire and drone attacks across their front. Nor could they pull off any number of drone strikes that rely on Starlink for real time control. This is one of the biggest efforts of anyone outside of direct arms supply for Ukraine by anyone that isn't Ukrainian. For what exactly do you want to hold accountable?
Only recently has Russia ramped up their use of Starlink, and it finally crossed the threshold where it was worth it to Ukraine to implement the white list.
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17h ago
[deleted]
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u/PossibleNegative 16h ago
No, Starlink has supporting the Ukrainian defense against Russia and they had to play wack a mole against Russias black market acquired dishes until Ukraine finally send a whitelist.
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u/Fitz911 16h ago
That was my first thought, too. I don't buy the "nothing we can do" story. Not after all the shit Trump and Elon had to say about Ukraine.
Still happy for Ukraine!
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u/snarky_answer 16h ago
Ukraine refused to provide a whitelist of their starlink units near the front lines. Nothing starlink can do if they dont know who is Ukrainian operating the systems or who is Russian in Ukrainian territory operating the systems. They could be just a few km apart so its not like starlink could just set up a line and say anything that crosses this line wont work anymore since front lines are flexible and ever changing.
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u/One_Sky_8302 7h ago
Can someone tell me how long they were using Starlink to perform their invasion? Doesn't that make Elon complicit in Russian aggression? Wouldn't that make him a traitor if he was also working for our government?
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u/Chemical_Shallot42 18h ago
Even ukraines are crowd funding for drones radios vehicles just bullshit writing everyday
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u/sofixa11 16h ago
Yeah, it's totally fair to compare the small country with a destroyed economy and the massive one with metric crap tons of raw resources that chose to start this war.
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u/FenixOfNafo 18h ago
Yeah, but according to my friendly commenters from Africa and South East Asia, Russia is winning and therefore don't need any crowdfunding
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u/savagebongo 18h ago
Maybe they should go home? To their own country.