Brought in for civilian use, Starlink is now integral to Ukraine’s war effort

Russia’s latest attempts to jam Starlink are about more than disrupting an internet service. They reflect a larger shift in the Ukraine war. Over the last three years, Starlink has become deeply embedded in how Ukraine fights. It sits behind drone operations, battlefield communications, and command networks that stretch across hundreds of kilometres of the front. That is why Russia is now trying to interfere with it.

When Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion in February 2022, one of the first casualties was Ukraine’s communications network. Mobile towers were damaged, fibre-optic lines were cut, and internet services became unreliable in many parts of the country. A cyberattack on the Viasat satellite network, carried out around the start of the invasion, only added to the disruption.