Exclusive: As Musk Slows Starshield, Ukraine Pivots to Israeli Drone Communications Technology

In the latest indication that the Trump administration is losing leverage over Ukraine, Kyiv is using an Israeli alternative to Elon Musk’s military communications system. The Israeli system, HiSKY has a far narrower bandwidth than Mr. Trump’s Starshield, but it allows Ukrainians to control drones flying as far east as Siberia.“Ukraine has slipped off the American leash and found a commercial alternative that the White House cannot switch off with a phone call,” Russian Telegram channel Intelligence Officer’s Diary complained last week. Manufactured in Italy by a company led by a former Mossad director, Tamir Pardo, HiSKY SmartLITE terminals bounce their signals among at least six leased satellite systems. This allows drone operators to evade electronic warfare, to fly around air defenses, and to change targets in midair. For now, in the fast-paced Russia-Ukraine arms race, the links are unjammable.“This is not Starlink. This is European equipment that allows, using European communications networks, the piloting of long-range drones against the entire territory of the Russian Federation,” Russian military researcher Alexander Lyubimov warned after studying the remains of drones downed deep inside Russia. “We can expect mass use of drones against any point in the Russian Federation using this space communications system, specifically that does not belong to Musk, but to Europe.”The results are devastating. In the last 10 days, Ukrainian drones have hit 10 of Russia’s 35 major refineries, including the nation’s five largest. By switching targets, drone operators are taking out the ‘brains’ of a refinery, and then redirecting remaining drones to lesser-value targets — tank farms, cracking units, and electrical substations. Over the last two weeks, Ukrainian drone swarms have knocked out about 30 percent of Russia’s refining capacity, Reuters calculates.Near Saint Petersburg, a blaze early Wednesday morning at Ust-Luga oil export complex was so large that it was visible in neighboring Estonia. Russia claims to have shot down 150 Ukrainian drones, but the air battle was so fierce that Russian air defenders apparently shot down two of their own helicopters and one supersonic fighter, an MiG-31.In Omsk, the Siberian home of Russia’s largest refinery in Russia, the eight-hour attack on Wednesday was so intense that the regional governor told residents not to watch. Seeking to suppress news of damage caused by falling ‘drone debris,’ Governor Vitaly Khotsenko commanded on Telegram: “Emergency services are working at sites where enemy drone debris fell. Residents are asked not to go outside, not to observe the Russian Ministry of Defense’s air defense systems, not to photograph, and not to publish these materials.” The refinery produces 17 percent of Russia’s diesel and gasoline. Soon after the refinery attacks, gas rationing and long gas lines appeared across ‘European Russia,’ the western region that is home to three quarters of the nation’s population.The day of the Omsk attack, as Trump peace negotiators prepared to fly to Moscow, speeds on Mr. Musk’s military satellite communications system, Starshield, suddenly slowed to 100 miles an hour on Ukraine’s front line and on its border with Russia. That speed is too slow to stop Russia’s new cruise missile-style drones. Powered by turbojets, these drones can fly 400 miles an hour. The slowdown of Starshield also handicaps a key Ukrainian offensive campaign: patrolling a 50-mile wide band behind Russia’s front line to cut off reinforcements of soldiers and supplies of ammunition.“Because of the speed restrictions, we simply cannot catch up with [the missiles] in time,” Mr. Zelensky told leaders of 50 nations gathered at Dublin on Thursday for the European Political Community summit. Earlier, he posted on X: “Unfortunately, this is helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine.”The slowdown of Mr. Musk’s Starshield on Ukraine’s border area echoes a 10-day slowdown in October. Primed by that event, Congress reacted immediately to the new slowdown: On Thursday, the bipartisan 105-member Congressional Ukraine Caucus posted a statement that it was “extremely alarmed” by the reports of the Starshield slowdown and “demanding a full accounting” from the Trump administration and SpaceX.After the first slowdown, in mid-October, President Zelensky offered to suspend attacks on Russian refineries if President Putin stopped bombing Ukrainian power plants. President Putin ignored the offer and continued with his declared plan to render Ukraine’s largest cities uninhabitable this winter, cutting off electricity, heat and drinking water.In response, Mr. Zelensky offered in a Fox News interview to suspend attacks on Russian refineries if Mr. Trump supplies Ukraine with air defense missiles. Mr. Trump has said the missiles cannot be delivered before 2030. Believing that Russia’s diesel shortage was forcing up world prices during the mid-term campaign season, Mr. Trump repeatedly demanded an end to Ukrainian attacks on refineries. He also signed a waiver suspending compliance with a U.S. law banning imports of Russian oil and gas.That initiative fell flat. In the face of bipartisan American opposition, three Russian tankers destined for America changed course, steaming toward Brazil or Turkey. A fourth tanker made a U-turn 400 miles east of New York. It is now in the middle of the Atlantic “awaiting orders.” Back in Russia, new refineries burn on an almost daily basis. Today it is the turn of Volgograd.Exiled Russian economist Vyacheslav E. Shiryaev ventures that the low cost Israeli technology could be a game changer for Ukraine. “If Ukraine decides to finish the job, Russia’s oil refining can be wiped out in two to three weeks,” he says in a posted interview. “Not years. Weeks. And once the refineries are gone, the war economy runs on fumes.”

Exclusive: As Musk Slows Starshield, Ukraine Pivots to Israeli Drone Communications Technology

Exclusive: As Musk Slows Starshield, Ukraine Pivots to Israeli Drone Communications Technology

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