Over the last three years, Starlink has become deeply embedded in how Ukraine fights. File photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian forces are trying ​to counter Ukrainian ‘mid-strike’ drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots ‌told Reuters.

Kyiv’s development of ‘mid-strike’ drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometres behind front lines accurately and cheaply,and ​are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine.

In a concerted mid-strike campaign this year, ⁠Ukraine has attacked supply lines, fuel storage facilities, air-defence installations and command centres, disrupting Russian forces’ logistics and causing fuel shortages in Russian —occupied Crimea.

But Russia is now developing many ways to try to counter the mid-range strikes, four drone commanders and pilots told a Reuters crew that visited Ukraine’s 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment ‌at work in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Jamming devices

Russia’s methods to protect fuel and other military supplies range from hiding shipments in civilian vehicles to using sophisticated electronic jamming devices to block connections used to pilot the drones, they ‌said.

Jamming devices have been installed by Russia near towns and military facilities, including some that can disrupt the Starlink systems operated ‌by ⁠Mr. Musk’s SpaceX, they said.

Most of Ukraine’s mid-strike missions are flown using Starlink, which allows a pilot to remotely ⁠communicate with a drone and had been considered largely immune to jamming.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, said Russia was deploying a jamming system called the Volna Kupol Garant that emits a signal strong enough to destabilise the Starlink connection in an area of about 20 square km (7.7 square miles). He added that ​about 10 had been detected so far.

However, the system ‌is itself a prominent target for Ukrainian drone crews keen to knock out any impediment to their flights.

The 422nd regiment has taken part in operations to hit two of these systems, including one that was struck several hours after being detected in a joint mission with the SBU security service, Mr. Kolesnyk said.

A video of one attack showed a large explosion as a drone struck ‌a site containing six large boxes resembling trailers.

“As soon as we struck that installation, our Starlink-equipped [drones] flew without problems,” ​said a crew commander who uses the callsign ‘Dyryhent’. Mr. Musk has meanwhile cut Russian forces off from using Starlink to stop Moscow using it in its own drone strikes.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment ⁠for this story, nor did Russia’s defence ministry. Reuters was not able to independently verify the tactics being used by Russia to avoid strikes.

Military supplies in civilian vehicles

During Reuters‘ visit to the 422nd regiment, Ukrainian soldiers operating in a field in the dim red glow of headtorches loaded ‌a warhead packed with high explosive into a winged drone. Its propeller engine spluttered and then roared into life.

Launched by a catapult, the ‘Zozulya’ [’Cuckoo’] drone flew southeast towards Crimea under cover of darkness, targeting a base used by Russian drone pilots.

Mr. Kolesnyk and other drone commanders outlined some of the tactics Moscow is using to protect fuel and other supplies.

“We hit water tankers and the tankers were burning because there was gasoline inside,” Mr. Kolesnyk said. “We’ve hit painted-up milk trucks that had diesel fuel in them.”

Russian forces now run small convoys of fuel tankers protected by pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, take smaller roads to avoid surveillance and use civilian vehicles to carry supplies, the ‌Ukrainian commanders said.

Ukraine’s military intelligence told Reuters Russian forces were using small civilian cars, quadbikes and motorcycles to transport fuel, ammunition and provisions to the front.

They ​also use camouflaged dugouts, abandoned buildings and agricultural structures to conceal supplies and civilian petrol stations to store fuel for the military, it said.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said Ukraine’s mid-strikes ⁠were perhaps the most important battlefield development this year, but Moscow was starting to have some success at counteracting them.

“If they scale production ⁠of the jammers, they could make it more difficult to conduct the middle-strike campaign,” he said. Despite its impact, the mid-strike campaign has not stopped deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine, Russia still holds about a fifth of Ukrainian territory four years ‌after its full-scale invasion, and not all Ukrainian drone strikes succeed.

When the 422nd regiment fired a RAM-2X drone at a fuel tanker during Reuters’ visit, it missed, and the surveillance drone used to follow the truck was hit by a Tor surface-to-air ​missile system.

“At least we know it’s there now,” said one of the crewmen, who logged the Tor into Ukraine’s digital battlefield targeting system— leaving a target for another day.

Published – July 08, 2026 03:36 pm IST

Starlink awaiting final approval, including spectrum allocation, before launching services. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladesh said on Friday (February 14, 2025) it had asked tech billionaire Elon Musk to bring satellite internet service Starlink to the South Asian country, as its fragile interim government seeks U.S. diplomatic support.

Mr. Musk has a highly visible White House role as President Donald Trump’s right-hand man, where his meetings with foreign leaders have raised questions over the blurring of his official roles and business interests.

The world’s richest man spoke on Thursday with Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading a caretaker administration in Bangladesh following a student-led revolution last year.

They discussed during a lengthy video call bringing Starlink, which provides internet access to remote locations by low Earth orbit satellites, to Bangladesh.

The pair emphasised that the service would create new opportunities for “Bangladesh’s enterprising youth, rural and vulnerable women, and remote communities”, a statement from Mr. Yunus’ media office said.

The statement added that Mr. Musk had said he was “looking forward” to visiting Bangladesh after Mr. Yunus extended him an invitation.

MR. Musk has yet to discuss the meeting publicly, including on X, the social media platform he owns and on which he chronicles his day-to-day thoughts.

The call took place the same day Mr. Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Washington at Mr. Trump’s invitation.

Mr. Modi’s government has seen deteriorating relations with Bangladesh since Mr. Yunus took office after last year’s uprising ousted autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.

India was Ms. Hasina’s most important benefactor and she remains in exile in New Delhi, despite Bangladesh’s demands she be extradited to face trial for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the revolt that toppled her.

Denpasar:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk launched Sunday his Starlink service in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali as the country aims to extend internet to its remote areas.

Millions of people in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, are not currently hooked up to reliable internet services.

Musk, making his first visit to the Southeast Asian nation, inaugurated the satellite unit services at a clinic in Bali’s capital Denpasar on Sunday afternoon.

He also signed an agreement on the health sector along with Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

Musk and the officials also attended a presentation by staff members from Indonesia’s community clinics in Bali and Maluku provinces on the acceleration of internet speeds after using Starlink.

The internet services have been pilot-tested in three health facilities in the regions to input various data sets into the national system, such as those on immunisations, child nutrition and diabetes.

“We are very excited to bring connectivity to places that either have no connectivity or, as you saw in the demonstration, very low bandwidth connectivity,” Musk said at a news conference.

“So, this can make a really lifesaver for remote medical clinics. And I think it can be transformative for education as well,” added Musk, sporting a green shirt made of traditional Balinese woven fabric called “endek”.

The Indonesian government is moving the capital from traffic-clogged Jakarta, where researchers say large areas could be underwater by 2050 due to rising sea levels and land subsidence to Nusantara.

After the trial, Starlink, which acquired a permit to operate in Indonesia earlier this month, could be rolled out commercially across the archipelago.

Starlink is already available in Southeast Asia in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Using a network of low Earth orbit satellites, Starlink can provide internet to remote locations or areas that have had normal communications infrastructure disabled.

The Indonesian government has allocated a budget to allow Starlink’s services for 10,000 state-owned clinics across the country in the initial implementation, according to Budi.

However, he did not detail the amount, saying that despite a budget limit, the allocation is expected to be “enough to cover the Starlink’s costs”.

Starlink’s services will be trialled this month in Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara on the island of Borneo, which will open its doors in August, according to officials.

According to the World Bank, about two-thirds of Indonesia’s roughly 270 million people had access to the internet as of 2022.

Besides the Starlink’s launch, Musk is scheduled on Monday to speak at the World Water Forum being held on the holiday island.

He is also due to meet President Joko Widodo during the event.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)