In the same way as the development of War in Ukraine It would have been very different without the military support from the West to the invaded country, it would also have been without Starlink, the satellite network of the company of the company of Elon Musk which provides communications and Internet access. Starlink and its military use version, Starshield They have been crucial so that, despite all Russia’s attacks on their communications and interference infrastructure with conventional communication satellites, Ukraine military forces can continue to communicate effectively.
That has done that Starlink is a priority objective of Moscow And, according to a report from Secure World Foundation (SWF, American non -profit organization that seeks to promote the safe, sustainable and peaceful use of outer space), object of new electronic war methods. SWF describes the two systems that Russia currently has to interfere with the communications of satellites on Ukrainian soil: TOBOL And the most recent Kalinka.
Russia against the largest satellite network in the world
In six years, Spacex has put more than 8,000 Starlink satellitesof which some operations are currently 7,000. It is, by far, the largest satellite network in the world, with authorization of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to reach the 12,000 and plans to increase the number up to 42,000. This high number of satellites in orbit allows Ukraine to constantly fly Those who serve Ukraine change continuously.
This makes it more difficult for Russia to interfere with their signs than those that maintain a geostationary orbitthat is, synchronized with the rotation of the Earth and that are maintained in the same area.
In addition, Starlink technology has demonstrated its ability to resist Russian electronic war attacks, although that seems to be beginning to change. According to SWF, the Ukrainian Military Forces They experience interruptions in their Starlink connections since May 2024. A Ukrainian government official indicated that these interruptions were the result of Russia was ‘Testing different mechanisms’ for its electronic warfare systems.
TOBOL
Tobol is a Russian program that was known in 2021 And I was originally designed to Protect Russian interference satellites. After the beginning of the war in February 2022, Russia is using it to Interrupt satellite and GPS communications in Ukraine.
SWF states that Russia has at least 7 Tobol complexes Distributed in their territory, all of them located next to satellite monitoring facilities: four are stationary, two are mobile and the seventh has not yet been determined.
Tobol complexes contain multiple satellite antennas which can be used for both offensive and electronic warfare purposes. American military documents filtered suggest that Russia has used at least 3 Tobol facilities to try to interrupt the signs of Starlink commercial satellites about East Ukraine.
Although Tobol does not have the ability to affect Starlink data, according to the United States Department of Defense, Yes to do so to the GPS module responsible for the synchronized operation of the terminal (which receives the connection on the ground) and the satellite.
Other reports indicate that the blockade and supplantation of GPS in the east of the Baltic could come from another tobol installation in the bib Kaliningrad. SWF also points out that there is evidence that Russia could be planning a new version or modification of the Tobol system that can attack foreign satellite transmissionsin addition to protecting those of Russian satellites.
Kalinka
Kalinka is more recent, its existence was known in 2024obeys the specific Russian needs of this war and has been qualified as A ‘Starlink murderer’.
According to SWF, this electronic war platform can detect and interrupt the signals to and from the Starlink satelliteswith the specific objective of interfering with Ukrainian drones and military communications.
What makes Kalinka particularly worrying is his supposed Ability to detect terminals connected to Starshieldthe military military version that has improved security characteristics.