Russia faces challenges trying to jam Starlink in Ukraine

Footage reportedly shows Ukrainian forces destroying a Russian system deployed to jam Starlink. The satellite network, which is notoriously difficult to jam, has become crucial for providing high-speed internet access to Ukraine.

Six white trailers, lined up in two rows of three, with one bursting into flames after being struck by an explosive device. This is the scene captured in aerial drone footage shared in mid-June by Serhii Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian electronic warfare expert known by the call sign "Flash", who became an advisor to Ukraine's minister of defence in January 2026.

According to Beskrestnov, the video depicts the destruction by the Ukrainian forces of a Russian "electronic warfare system" designed to jam Starlink.

The satellite internet service, owned by Elon Musk, was activated in Ukraine back in February 2022 and is widely used by Ukrainian forces, including to operate drones. It relies on a satellite constellation to beam internet access down to satellite dishes, which can be deployed anywhere to distribute connectivity to nearby devices.

“Starlink became a game changer for Ukraine because it provided an extremely reliable and easy-to-use communication channel,” said Oleg Kutkov, a Ukrainian engineer who is an expert in the Starlink network.

“You can be in the middle of nowhere and in a few minutes, you are getting a high-speed channel, and you can stream real-time videos and your data.”

The video was geolocated by online investigator Dominik in Melitopol, southern occupied Ukraine, near the E105 road. This route has been the target of numerous Ukrainian drone strikes in recent weeks.

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Another video, also captured by a drone, was published the same day by the 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment “Luftwaffe” of the Ukrainian 17th Army Corps – a regiment whose name and symbology explicitly reference Hitler’s air force.

The footage shows a drone attacking a complex consisting of six elements resembling trailers or containers.

According to the post, the operation was carried out jointly with the Alpha Group, a special operations unit of Ukraine's SBU security service, and aimed to "destroy an enemy complex designed to jam Starlink communication stations".

‘Blinding’ Starlink satellites with 'parasitic signals'

According to "Flash", these jammers correspond to a model named "Volna Kupol Garant", produced by "Russkiy Kupol”, a Russian company identified as a manufacturer of electronic warfare systems for Crimea.

The systems consist of six trailers, the expert writes. Each reportedly conceals two antennas that emit powerful interference toward the satellite so it “does not hear signals from normal [Starlink] terminals” used by Ukraine on the ground.

These antennas, which could also be deployed directly on the ground, are said to resemble "an egg" and conceal a satellite dish equipped with a rotating mechanism. Each antenna reportedly emits interference on a distinct frequency band among those received by the satellite.

Russia itself has reported on this jammer model, without, however, sharing any images of it.

“This system doesn't aim to disrupt communications between a drone and a satellite. It aims to jam the satellite itself,” Dmitry Kuzyakin, CEO of the Russian military-industrial complex's Centre for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told the official Russian news agency TASS on June 16. “To do this, it literally blinds it with parasitic signals, preventing ground-based subscribers from hearing.”

“For Starlink satellites, it's like someone is screaming directly into your ear with some random loud music noise,” Kutkov said. “It becomes hard to hear the extra signal from the Starlink terminal.”

In an interview with the BBC, “Flash” indicated that this system was first identified in the Kharkiv region in 2024.

However, he said Ukraine has “begun to record its large-scale use in the last few weeks", particularly since it “began actively attacking Russian logistics with ‘middle strikes’".

The expert noted that “up to a dozen systems” have been recorded. He said they were positioned “to protect critical infrastructure facilities and logistics routes” – without disclosing their exact locations.

Read moreUkraine: How a kamikaze drone partially operated by AI is attacking Russian convoys

Russian efforts to disrupt Starlink

Our team could not independently verify that the complexes appearing in these videos are the “Volna Kupol Garant”, as little information about the system is publicly available. While the “Russkiy Kupol” website features several types of jammers, it makes no mention of this specific model.

However, reports indicate that Moscow has sought to disrupt Starlink since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“There have been reports about Russia affecting Starlink earlier,” said Victoria Samson, the Chief Director of Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, which identified reported attempts to disrupt Starlink in a 2026 report.

In early March 2022, the report notes, Elon Musk claimed that Starlink terminals had been jammed in Ukraine, adding that the company had updated its software to counter the operation – though there was no independent information on the nature and scale of the jamming.

The following year, a leak of US intelligence documents suggested that Russia had attempted to use its "Tobol" military GPS jamming systems, originally developed to protect its own satellites, to disrupt Starlink’s transmissions in Ukraine.

A few months later, in May 2024, amid reports from Ukrainian units of widespread disruptions to Starlink connections, Ukrainian officials said that Russia had deployed “powerful” electronic warfare systems to jam the service, though it did not detail the specific devices used.

Separately, Russia's TASS news agency reported in late 2024 the development of “Kalinka”, a system aimed at jamming Ukrainian drones and military communications. The system is reportedly capable of locating signals from both Starlink and Starshield – the militarised, more secure version of the service. However, independent information regarding these systems and their potential deployment remains extremely limited.

Hard-to-jam signals

In Ukraine, Russian forces have successfully disrupted other signals, including GPS.

“And initially it was quite harmful for Starlink because it used a lot of GPS data,” Kutkov said. “But now, SpaceX has adapted its software to only work with Starlink itself.”

Starlink’s satellite signals, however, are difficult to neutralise, said Thomas Withington, an expert in electronic warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“Russians have been trying really hard, but they've not had much success in doing this.

Starlink satellites provide a lot of bandwidth. That means you need to be able to jam all the frequencies Starlink is using to jam it.

The beam between the satellite and the terminal is also very thin. So it becomes very difficult to jam unless your jamming signal is beamed directly into the receiving Starlink antenna. That means you need to be relatively close to the terminal, and on the battlefield, that's not a good idea.”

In addition, Starlink ensures continuous connectivity through a vast network of more than 10,000 active satellites in low Earth orbit (approximately 500 kilometres), with the signal constantly being passed from one satellite to another.

“So, in any moment of time, there are multiple starting terminals in the sky above some area,” Kutkov said.

“So you need to know which specific satellite you need to target. And modern Starlink terminals also have the ability to switch to backup satellites if something is wrong with the current satellite.” This means many antennas are required to track all the satellites in the sky.

“You need a very strong signal to jam the satellite when it's in space, you need to track the satellite, to keep the jamming signal very precisely steered onto the satellite and then you've got to repeat the process again,” Withington summarised. “So it's difficult. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be a challenging thing to do.”

An expensive system

Could the "Volna Kupol Garant" be a game-changer?

Russian media outlets have notably highlighted that the model is equipped with antennas allegedly capable of tracking satellites and electronically aiming the jamming beam toward them.

While experts point to a lack of independent information and imagery to fully assess the model’s effectiveness, they note that several limitations are apparent.

“You can easily detect it visually,” Kutkov noted. “We’ve seen these trucks lined up, with all the wires attached. It's quite hard to hide this installation.”

The device could also be detected by the strong electronic signal it emits and its "thermal signature", as it requires a significant power source, such as a power plant or a generator.

Finally, the system is said to be costly – $1.5 million per unit, according to "Flash". And Russian media outlet pravda.ru notes it can only protect a 20-square-kilometre area. 

Samson told our team:

“The Russian military has had a lot of expenses lately. So, are you going to spend a ton of money to provide a pinpoint defence that itself becomes a target, and you have to spend more money to protect it? I don't see them necessarily having the cash or the interest in putting it all over, but maybe in very specific and strategic places.”

For its part, Withington says he “treats the Russian claims with scepticism”, pointing out that the Ukrainian forces have already targeted the system. “I guess it might affect at some level, but not super critical."

As Starlink has deactivated terminals in early 2026 that Moscow had been procuring through third countries to improve its strike precision, Russia is now working on developing a similar network.

But all signs point to Russia also continuing to target Starlink, said Withington, who noted, however, that there is “a gap between the desire to be able to jam Starlink and actually being able to do that”.