Communication at the front is no longer running smoothly. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are regaining local and temporary air superiority with massive drone attacks.
Mar 23, 2026, 8:04 p.mMar 23, 2026, 8:04 p.m
Kurt Pelda / ch media
The Ukrainian spring officially begins on March 1st. In fact, temperatures across the country are now so high that people can survive without heating. What remains are widespread power outages – especially in the east and south – even though, according to residents of Kiev and Odessa, the supply of electricity has now improved.
A Ukrainian soldier in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine.Image: keystone
Ukraine has survived by far the harshest winter. Putin’s plan to bring the civilian population to their knees with cold weapons did not work. The attacks on the energy infrastructure have had the opposite effect: many Ukrainians are now even less willing than before to give in to Moscow’s demands for surrender.
Nevertheless, at the end of February, for example, the renowned American magazine “Foreign Affairs” published an article entitled “Ukraine is losing the war”. The country had already launched a counteroffensive in the southeast a month earlier, which has now turned out to be quite successful. Contrary to the prophecies of doom that have been predicting Kiev’s imminent defeat for more than four years, Ukraine has not only survived the winter, but is even in a position to wrest the initiative from the Russians on certain sections of the front.
This unexpected action was facilitated by the blocking of the Russian Starlink terminals in Ukraine. The fact that the newly appointed and only 35-year-old Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov was able to convince Starlink founder Elon Musk to block the satellite dishes used by Russia in Ukraine is seriously disrupting the invading army’s communication. It’s not just about Russian combat drones, which were recently controlled via Starlink.
Kiev’s youngest minister: Mikhailo Fedorov, 35, responsible for defense.Image: keystone
Anyone who is allowed to look at a Ukrainian or Russian command room today quickly realizes how important it is to transmit videos from their own reconnaissance drones in real time. Starlink’s high data throughput allows commanders from both sides to maintain an overview of the battlefield and make decisions thanks to high-resolution videos.
Without Starlink, the computer screens hardly show current situation reports, which is an extreme disadvantage in modern drone warfare. Anyone who cannot detect enemy supply vehicles, tanks, guns or bunkers from drone pilots in a timely manner and then fight them promptly will be at a disadvantage.
Kremlin wants to impose Max instead of Telegram
Of course, Moscow will compensate for the loss of Starlink sooner or later, but the communication of the Russian front-line soldiers is currently being affected by another, self-inflicted action by the Kremlin. Messenger services such as Whatsapp and Signal have been blocked in Russia for a long time. Since mid-February, the authorities have also been throttling the popular Russian messenger service Telegram. Observers expect that the application, which is popular at home and abroad, will soon be completely blocked.
Ukrainian command room with real-time videos from the front.Image: Kurt Pelda
One of the reasons for the block is Telegram’s refusal to provide the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB with information about its users. The Kremlin wants citizens to use the new Max application, which will make it easier for the FSB to spy on cell phone owners.
Telegram is perhaps the most important means of communication for Russian frontline soldiers. The government restrictions now make it difficult to exchange important messages. This makes it more difficult for Russian commanders to keep track of things and give orders quickly. It is not possible to switch to the Max application because it is considered too insecure and can be easily infiltrated by the Ukrainians.
Ukrainian observers report that many Russian soldiers are now accessing Telegram via so-called VPN services. Thanks to a VPN, you can access the Internet on a foreign server and thus bypass the domestic block. But Moscow has now blocked almost 470 such services, including the Swiss Proton VPN. In doing so, Moscow is curtailing the communications capabilities of its invading troops.
Russian soldiers are trying, among other things, to make do with radio antennas and laying fiber optic cables. An important role is played by the network technology of the American manufacturer Ubiquiti, whose products are appearing en masse on the front lines despite sanctions.
Drone swarms against drone pilots
The Ukrainian counter-offensive in the southeast pushed the enemy back, not least because of communication problems on the Russian side, and thus possibly hindered the start of the planned Russian spring offensive. However, the decisive factor for the Ukrainians’ interim success was the massive use of electronic jamming devices against Russian radio drones and the locally limited air superiority with combat drones.
Kiev’s armed forces have thus managed to give their armored vehicles breathing room during the attack. The preferred target of the Ukrainian drones is not only the Russian infantry and the supply routes, but also the positions of Russian drone pilots.
The more pilots and radio antennas the Ukrainians turn off, the less their own attack units will be bothered by Russian drones. In addition, more and more radio-controlled drones no longer require a pilot when approaching their target, but are instead controlled using artificial intelligence. This allows the Ukrainians to send out swarms of drones that independently destroy their target following instructions from the pilots.
On the other hand, the high oil price as a result of the Iran war and the partial lifting of US sanctions against Russian energy exports will have a positive impact on Russian warfare. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian side is in a much better position this spring than it was a year ago – especially because of the increasing share of domestic arms production and its innovative strength. This is now apparently also valued on the Arabian Peninsula – when defending against Iranian combat drones. (aargauerzeitung.ch)