1/ Life after Starlink is proving to be difficult and frustrating for the Russian army. Russian warbloggers appear to be going through the stages of grief, expressing anger and alarm at the crisis and concern that Ukraine will exploit it. One anticipates "24/7 fucking". ⬇️
2/ Further instances of price-gouging are being reported, with the cost of US-made Ubiquiti WiFi bridges – illegally imported into Russia – doubling overnight. 'Strong Word' complains:
3/ "Elon is certainly a real jerk. But we have some real assholes in the rear who decided to ride the wave and make money off their own soldiers. Wi-Fi bridges instantly doubled in price. It's maddening, some are spilling blood, and others are making a living off of it."
4/ Scammers are targeting soldiers with false promises that for a modest fee, they can get Starlink working again. 'Callsign OSETIN' warns:
"I'll write this again, comrades. Remember this. Don't trust anyone who offers to restore your Starlinks by any means necessary."
5/ "Starlinks are definitely out of stock for us now; it's impossible to reactivate them."
'Two Majors' extols the Russian army's signallers, who are working overtime trying to plug the gap left by Starlink:
6/ "To the signalmen, guys, we're sending you words of overwhelming support from our entire two-major family.
Now that the enemy has shut down "the internet for everyone" (Elon Musk is a fascist and a bastard), we know how much you're working in the cold.
7/ Pulling wholesale, fixing bridges, producing tapiks [field telephones] and Soviet-style switches. And all of this is urgent, just yesterday, because it's necessary.
Because the "just was/will be soon" communications situation is unacceptable.
8/ "Unit command and combat command signals depend on you.
We bow deeply to you, my dears. Everyone is counting on you, even if they curse you constantly."
9/ 'TopaZ Speaking' anticipates Ukraine exploiting the shutdown:
"Now, of course, the enemy will, at great expense, attempt to attack the stations and equipment connected to the backup communications systems that replace the vanished American satellite internet."
10/ "If these facilities aren't protected to the utmost, those responsible for their defence will be even greater geniuses than those who allowed the fighting army to become dependent on enemy communications.
11/ "Even greater geniuses than those who failed to take advantage of the time we had while we were relying on that American network to develop our own working equivalent."
12/ 'Kiba's Signalman's Diary' warns Russian Starlink users that the Ukrainians are obtaining locational data from the shut-down systems, which could in principle assist with artillery targeting:
13/ "Attention, EVERYONE, urgently!!!! Immediately disconnect all Starlink satellite stations from power and remove them from open skies. Positioning data from inactive devices is being collected."
14/ 'NGP raZVedka' confirms this:
"There are technical reasons to believe that Starlink has begun collecting information on the locations of inactive stations and systematizing this data.
To avoid this, we recommend disabling this useless piece of furniture."
15/ 'VORON FPV' adds:
"This also applies to active "trophies" and "bypass" dishes! [i.e. ones captured from the Ukrainians]"
16/ "According to unconfirmed reports, all data from the dishes is now integrated with [Ukrainian data systems] Delta and Nettle. In other words, the enemy is verifying data by position."
17/ The blogger doesn't rate highly the Russian MOD's chances of closing the gap, now that it is being forced to resurrect previously deprecated communications solutions:
18/ "The 24/7 fucking is about to begin, the accelerated process of restoring something that never existed.😁
May Vaseline help them."
'Veterans' Notes' anticipates problems on the front line due to the shutdown:
19/ "Information is coming in from various sources that the enemy could take advantage of the shutdown of unregistered Starlink terminals to launch counterattacks on several front lines.
We must be as prepared as possible for such a scenario."
20/ Maxim Kalashnikov says that frontline soldiers are already reporting adverse operational impacts:
"From the front, they write: “…There are already major problems in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The front isn’t exactly crumbling, but it is destabilising.”
21/ “We took measures in advance…, but many didn’t…
And once again, I’m shocked by the “intelligence” of our higher-ups. Who couldn’t launch at least a couple hundred satellites for more or less stable communication.
22/ “Not like Musk’s, but at least decent for voice, images, and text. 30 MB/sec. That would be enough. But…”
And the Ukrainian Armed Forces will soon have Starlinks working. And then we’ll be covered in blood.
23/ "We’re facing another spectacular failure. Do we have a State Defence Committee that concentrates all power in the country during a war? And one headed by the president, not just another “bad boyar”? No.
24/ "There is no interdepartmental coordination, rapid feedback, or flexible response to the situation. And it turns out that in the Russian Federation, they were developing TWO alternatives to Musk's Starlink! Both Sphere and Rassvet.
25/ "Ultimately, neither was built during the war. A spectacular management failure. One of [many] during that ill-fated war. So, what happened?"
Rybar and others report that overnight Ukrainian advances in the Zaporizhzhia region are directly linked to the Starlink shutdown:
26/ "Although the enemy has managed to penetrate relatively deep into the Russian Armed Forces' control zone in some areas, there are no critical issues yet. The difficulties are primarily related to problems with the Starlink terminals and adverse weather conditions."
27/ 'Archangel Spetsnaz' says that the Russian army's communications have been set back three or four years: "Communication issues are a further challenge, as work is being carried out as if it were 2022-2023—station-by-station." /end
1/ Russian warbloggers are baffled and aghast at reports that the Russian Ministry of Defence will ban the issue of drones to combat units, and will keep them for its new Unmanned Systems Forces instead. If carried out, the consequences are likely to be drastic. ⬇️
2/ The Russian MOD established its Unmanned Systems Forces (BPS) in November 2025. To the concern of many commentators, it appointed Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Vaganov to command the new force, despite his lack of formal military education or prior service experience.
3/ Vaganov has earned the unofficial callsign 'Toilet' for his previous career as a seller of plumbing fixtures. He became a monopoly supplier of FPV drones to the army after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
1/ A prominent Russian warblogger and Ka-52 helicopter pilot appears to have killed himself after posting an apparent farewell video on Telegram. 'Voivode', real name Alexey Zemtsov, says he has committed suicide due to pressure from his superiors. ⬇️
2/ Zemtsov is a Guards Senior Lieutenant in the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) and administrator of the Telegram channel 'The Voivode Broadcasts', which has about 152,000 followers. He has been a prolific warblogger, but his criticisms caused serious problems with his superiors.
3/ He has published a farewell post on his channel, saying in a series of videos that he has "exercised the right of his last officer's honour" (i.e., decided to commit suicide) and declaring that "I won't be able to survive this disgrace". He explains his reasons.
1/ In this third part of his exposé of how organised crime has taken over the Russian army in Ukraine, Russian journalist Sergey Komkov highlights how Russian commanders are now "jumping to the tune of robbers and murderers." ⬇️
1/ Wealthy Russians are reportedly being offered the chance to have an hour-long meeting with Elon Musk's father Errol for the generous price of 1.9 million rubles ($25,000). Interested parties are advised to book slots quickly, as he flies out of Moscow tomorrow. ⬇️
2/ Russian warblogger Alex Kartavykh has published an apparent Telegram conversation offering access to Errol Musk, who is said to be organising resettlement opportunities for Afrikaner farmers from South Africa.
3/ The elder Musk has been a fairly regular visitor to Moscow in recent years. He was pictured over the past weekend attending an Easter service in the presence of Vladimir Putin.
1/ Russian tank crews are being sent to their deaths en masse in infantry assaults, according to a Russian soldier's plea for help. With tank use now severely limited due to drone strikes, their crews appear to be surplus to requirements. ⬇️
2/ A Russian soldier writes to the warblogger 'Voenkor Kotenok':
"Hello. I can't help but tell you what's really going on in the tank battalion of the 110th Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly the 100th Brigade of the DPR People's Militia).
3/ "Basically, tanks are now hardly taking part in direct combat, and so every two to three weeks, two men from each company in the battalion are drafted into the infantry and sent to assaults, to fortified positions, to support UAVs.
1/ An "Organised Thieves' Den" that has taken over Russia's army in Ukraine is systematically exploiting the war for profit, caring nothing for Russia's ultimate success or failure, says Russian journalist Sergey Komkov. ⬇️
2/ Here's part 1 of Komkov's exposé of how convicts recruited by the army have, in his assessment, effectively taken it over and are exploiting it for personal gain.
3/ Komkov complains that professional soldiers are unable to tackle the "criminal scum" (which he refers to by the acronym "OVM") who have taken over the lower ranks in the 'Special Military Operation' (SVO):