19 February 2026
What the Z-bloggers so desperately warned about has begun to happen. Almost simultaneously deprived of modern communications, Russian troops found themselves in a difficult situation, resorting to defensive measures in some areas of the front and limiting offensive drone operations. Meanwhile, Ukrainian units are now inflicting heavier losses on them, European officials and military personnel told Bloomberg.
Senior European diplomats described the Russian military’s communications problems as significant. A NATO spokesman said some of Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes were made possible by Russian soldiers losing access to Starlink.
Ukrainian forces have been able to carry out several counterattacks in recent days, “likely taking advantage of recent disruptions in Russian Starlink and Telegram terminals,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted. According to its analysts, these disruptions have also undermined the Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies’ ability to use short- and medium-range drones to strike Ukrainian positions. Communications problems “prevent Russian forces from carrying out these strikes with the same intensity and depth as in previous weeks,” the ISW noted.
The Institute also noted the contradictory statements by Russian government officials, who, like Dmitry Peskov, initially denied Telegram’s importance to soldiers on the front lines, but have now begun to acknowledge that they used the messenger and the American-based Starlink. Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev even promised not to block Telegram in combat zones. Meanwhile, officials, members of parliament, and propagandists continue to make reservations, downplaying the importance and impact of these forms of communication.
Conflicting statements about whether Russian troops are using Telegram on the battlefield continue to demonstrate that “the Kremlin is sensitive to complaints from military bloggers, a key pro-war community it has long sought to co-opt and control,” ISW notes. At the same time, its analysts point out,
The Kremlin is looking for new justifications to strengthen censorship against Telegram.
Ukrainian forces advanced in the Zaporizhia region after Russian units lost Starlink communications, a senior NATO official told The Moscow Times a week ago. With the loss of Starlink, “Russia found itself in a somewhat difficult position in terms of operational command and control,” he noted.