Russia has begun routing military communications over its Rassvet satellite network above Ukraine, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), the country’s military intelligence agency, told Reuters in a report published on 9 November by The Defense Post. The disclosure comes about two weeks after SpaceX ended a week of speed restrictions that had grounded Ukrainian interceptor drones — an episode that exposed how much of Kyiv’s war effort runs over links it does not own.
Key facts
- GUR says Rassvet, positioned as a Russian alternative to Starlink, is now carrying Russian military traffic over Ukraine, but is still too small for continuous coverage.
- Russia launched 32 Rassvet satellites this year and plans further launches before the end of 2026, according to GUR.
- Bureau 1440, the company coordinating the state-backed project, is targeting more than 900 satellites by 2035 — a figure The Defense Post attributed to the company’s own programme rather than to GUR’s assessment.
- GUR says the network could let Russian operators stream reconnaissance as it is gathered, redirect attack drones in flight and make those drones harder to jam.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky sanctioned 10 companies tied to the network in October, Bureau 1440 among them, The Defense Post reported.
Why it matters
Russia is assembling a military satellite link it owns outright, while the network Ukraine fights with belongs to a private company and its military variant is governed by a foreign government. October showed what that asymmetry costs in practice: a single speed ceiling, set outside Ukraine, severed telemetry and grounded the domestic interceptor drones Kyiv uses against jet-powered Shahed loitering munitions that can exceed 400 kilometres per hour, according to the Associated Press report published by the Los Angeles Times. Elon Musk, writing on X on 24 October, put the dependency more bluntly still: terminating the service, he said, would cause an immediate collapse of Ukraine’s front line, which he presented as a statement of fact rather than a threat.
What GUR says Rassvet could do for Russian drones
Satellite connectivity would extend drone communications beyond the range of ground-based radio, The Defense Post reported. GUR said that would let reconnaissance aircraft send information as it is collected, and let operators steer attack drones that are already airborne — reducing reliance on flight paths programmed before launch and allowing routes to be adjusted against moving targets or air defences.
GUR spokesman Andrii Yusov said wider deployment could strengthen Russian reconnaissance and strike operations while making drones harder to disrupt with electronic warfare. The reports reviewed for this article relay that assessment in paraphrase; none carries a direct quotation from Yusov or from GUR’s written statement.
How large Rassvet is, and how large it is meant to get
The operational limit GUR describes is a matter of arithmetic rather than engineering. With 32 satellites launched this year, connections are available only when a spacecraft passes over the relevant area, so Russian forces get windows rather than a standing link — enough to pass traffic, not enough to hold a drone on satellite control for the length of a mission. Bureau 1440’s stated target of more than 900 satellites by 2035, as reported by The Defense Post, is the point at which those windows would close into continuous coverage; further launches are planned before the end of 2026.
Kyiv has tried to push that timeline back, through sanctions and attacks on infrastructure linked to the programme, The Defense Post reported, with October’s designation of Bureau 1440 and nine other companies the most recent step. In parallel, Ukraine is testing its own constellation, Obria.
October’s restrictions, in brief
Zelensky disclosed on 17 October that a speed restriction of 161 kilometres per hour had been imposed on satellite terminals operating inside Ukraine, londonlovesbusiness.com reported. That ceiling applied to Starshield, described in both the Los Angeles Times and Manila Times reports as SpaceX’s military-grade version of Starlink and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations.
It is a separate measure from the lower 70-to-90 kilometres per hour automatic cutoff that advisers say has applied to ordinary commercial Starlink terminals in Ukraine since early 2026, described in the FAQ below: the commercial cutoff is the tighter of the two but covers civilian kit, while October’s ceiling was newly placed on the military service Ukraine’s drones run on, and none of the reports reviewed says either replaced the other.
“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelensky wrote on X on 24 October, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times, saying restoration had begun overnight. Both wire-based reports said the week added to tensions between Kyiv and Washington, a relationship already strained by Trump’s reported deal with Moscow on Russian diesel imports. We covered the week of throttling that hit Ukraine’s drones and air defences separately.
The unresolved argument over who may use what
Musk said on 24 October that Ukraine’s military had violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the commercial service for offensive drone strikes, and that the loophole had been closed the previous week, londonlovesbusiness.com reported. He drew a line between Starlink, the commercial service, and Starshield, which that report describes as a separate system controlled by the US government — a distinction we unpack in the split between Starlink and Starshield. He also said SpaceX had done more to defend Ukraine than any other private enterprise.
Ukrainian defence specialists rejected the terms-of-service claim. Sternenko said standard commercial terminals could not operate on Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles under existing protocols, and that missions needing satellite guidance relied on Starshield instead, per londonlovesbusiness.com. That outlet said the competing accounts leave it unresolved whether Ukraine exploited a vulnerability or whether safeguards already blocked what Musk described.
None of the four reports reviewed for this article contains a statement by a senior Ukrainian military commander on whether the front line would hold without Starlink; the only assessment attributed on that question is Musk’s.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who ordered the speed restrictions on Ukraine’s satellite links?
That is still unresolved. According to the Associated Press report carried by the Los Angeles Times and the Manila Times, President Donald Trump has said he did not make the call while also saying Musk should not be blamed, Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have denied any administration involvement.
Was the October speed limit specific to Ukraine?
Comparative trials by Ukrainian engineers reportedly showed vehicles fitted with Starlink still working normally at speeds above 180 kilometres per hour in neighbouring European Union territory, according to londonlovesbusiness.com. Those results suggested the restriction was geographically confined to Ukraine.
Do Ukrainian terminals need to be registered to work while moving?
Serhii Sternenko, a volunteer and former adviser to the defence ministry, said whitelists introduced in February required any terminal that operates in motion to be registered and connected to Starshield, londonlovesbusiness.com reported. The same outlet reported that geographic restrictions deactivate commercial connectivity over Russian sovereign territory.
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