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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Russia already uses its own satellite system "Rassvet" for military communications over Ukraine. It is intended to help Russian drones hit targets more accurately and evade Ukrainian electronic warfare assets.
This was reported to Reuters by the Main Directorate of Intelligence.
How does the Russian Starlink operate over Ukraine?
Since the beginning of 2026, Russia has placed into orbit 32 satellites of "Rassvet." They were launched in two batches—in March and July.
Last month, the Russian government stated that the number of launched satellites had surpassed 30.
This is only a small part of SpaceX Elon Musk's Starlink network, which numbers over 10 thousand satellites.
According to intelligence assessments, by the end of 2026 year Russia plans to launch additional satellites to expand the coverage of the "Rassvet" system and ensure stable satellite communications.
Representative of the GUR Andriy Yusov confirmed that Russia uses "Rassvet" over Ukrainian territory for military purposes.
At the same time, the current number of satellites is not sufficient for continuous coverage of Ukrainian territory. The connection is available only periodically—when satellites pass over the respective areas.
According to GUR estimates, the "Rassvet" system can provide two-way data exchange between Russian drones and ground control points over Ukraine. This will allow reconnaissance drones to transmit information in real time, and operators to alter the routes of strike drones mid-flight.
In this way, Russia will rely less on pre-programmed flight paths. In particular, drones will be able to respond to changes in target locations or evade Ukrainian air defense.
According to Andriy Yusov, in the long term this could increase the effectiveness of Russian strike and reconnaissance drones, as well as complicate their detection and interception by EW and electronic intelligence assets.
Kyiv security expert Mykola Ziencev noted that there are already signs of the impact of "Rassvet" on the accuracy of strikes by Russian reactive drones. In his assessment, Russia already has at least two quality time windows for satellite communications daily. Each lasts more than an hour, which is enough to influence military operations.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Росія вже використовує аналог Starlink для військових операцій в Україні, – ГУР". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
