Why Russia is building its own version of Starlink | The Economist

Russia is developing its equivalent of. Starlink. It's nascent. It's launched, I. think, a few dozen satellites. It's not. working properly yet. But, you know, we. kept hearing again and again that within. a few months, probably up to a year, they will have a sort of functioning. equivalent of Starlink. That will be a. game-changer for the negative for. Ukraine because it will mean that the. Russians will basically be able to have. complete ability to locate and hit. anything over Ukraine in the same way. that Starlink gives the Ukrainians that.

capacity. On the other side, if the. Ukrainians could use Starlink over. Russian territory to hit missile. launchers, they could do, as Alex said, they could hit the archer, not the. arrow. But, unfortunately, Elon Musk. refuses to allow that. So, one question. is whether. political pressure or any pressure can. be put upon uh. Musk and Starlink to enable that use. And, you know, I think there is a. reasonably strong argument, which is. that Russia is hitting civilians using.

ballistic missiles. you know, in in a very, very evident and. increasing way. And that for me, Ed, is. the kind of big picture of this. It's. It's a race of ever faster innovation on. both sides. >> Yeah, I'm just on that point. So, just. you viewers might not know, but um. about 2 weeks ago, Ukraine Kiev saw its. first mothership with FPV drones. A. mothership is essentially bringing a. a big a big drone, which is bringing a. lot of smaller drones, which are a lot. harder to shoot down um for air defense. So, it was a Shaka drone coming into to.

Kiev. And then, essentially, the idea. was to release It was an experimental. version of this. But, what Russia tends. to do is show this, and then 3 months, 6. months later, you see it in mass. Uh whether it be with fiber optics or. with the jet drones, that their ability. to. um often take Ukrainian technology. and then find the sweet spot in modern. war of very, very cheap, very hard to. intercept weapons. It's been doing it. consistently and this is a sort of. harbinger a very worrying harbinger of.

what might be in Kiev in a very very. short time. >> It's a serious terror tactic and there's. this rather unpleasant vernacular doing. the rounds of called Safari tactics. where Russians have been using FPV. drones close to the front line, particularly cities close to the front. line and showing images of these things. going after sub-civilian in a salute. cars and so so forth and it it comes. back to what we were saying earlier. about friction. That kind of terror, who's going to keep leave their child in. the city if there are FPV drones, you. know, employing Safari tactics on the. streets of the capital?

>> Alex, is there is there scope for. Ukraine to put pressure on Russia by. changing the terms on the front line. line? >> This is an area we can we can we can. draw more confidence certainly. Um and. they they have been holding the line. very ably, you know, even though yes, over years you're talking, you know, tens of kilometers. I think the net loss. gain this year is a 100 square. kilometers. I I understand that's. basically the. >> In a country of what sort of. >> Yeah, and that's equivalent of Paris. inside the peripherique ring road I I. researched the other day. So it's it's.

nothing. Um and actually a lot of commentators or. some commentators are now sort of. suggesting that that the Ukrainians are. on the front foot and developing the. kind of tactics which allows you to. seize at least small amounts of terrain. But you have not a stalemate so much as. you could describe it as a dynamic. equilibrium there. >> Think think it's just worth spelling out. again what pain uh Russia is enduring to. get that very very minimal gain. So. 40,000 casualties a month is now the. estimated toll that Russia is suffering.

It's worth remembering that's more in. one month than the Soviet Union lost in. 10 years in Afghanistan every single. month. >> Yes, and I've seen figures for the the. entire war greater losses than the US in. the Second World War for instance. So I. mean it is. it is a high level of killing, but um I. guess quest the question Ollie is is. whether that changes the the overall. terms of the war. >> Um. >> I don't think so Uh because we've seen. many times before. if Putin can get the people to serve to.

basically go to the front lines and and. and fight often with inferior equipment. and you know essentially on a on a. one-way one-way one-way trip. He's able. to find them and even now although of. course you know the recruitment is is. lagging behind the the the. the killed and and wounded counts. He's. still able to find them and I wouldn't. assume that that's going to change in. any any any short time. Now we've we've. been been talking about mobilization and. that's clearly in the works. He doesn't. necessarily have to do it openly. He can.

do it secretly. There's a lot more. in Russia. There's a lot more resource. and you know in terms of we spoke about. it last time on the on the show. In. terms of the war of attrition Putin. thinks he's winning and I think I think. the message I think coming from you know. Kiev right now is that. Putin is is is is feeling quite. comfortable especially in the area of of. jet drones and and ballistic missiles. and he's he's able to um you know. to to bring home that advantage in in.

men, material and money, the three three. components of war. >> Thank you Ollie. Now even if Zanny that. doesn't mean that there's about to one. side's about to be defeated. There is an. another initiative going on here which. is another attempt to try and get some. sort of peace deal. And the day you. arrived in Kiev I I think Kushner and. Witkoff were pulling out. What was the talk about whether. there is going to be any sort of peace. deal? I saw Trump last night tweeting. about some sort of energy ceasefire and.

no one really knowing about it. What's. the talk? >> So I think the honest assessment from. most people in Kiev was that nobody took. that terribly seriously. Um they were I. think delighted that that Steve Witkoff. and Jared Kushner actually came to Kiev. for the first time. Um. but it was not no one thought you know. this is peace in our time. That said, I suspect I wouldn't be at. all surprised if there wasn't more talk. of of peace negotiations in the next few. weeks it it after the Russian Duma. election and before the midterms. It.

would suit Donald Trump President Trump. to be able to say, you know, I'm doing. this there's progress. You could even. have talk about and I've I've heard. reports of it some sort of energy mutual. ceasefire. We're going to stop hitting. each other's energy targets. Remember. President Trump is desperate for the. Ukrainians to stop hitting refineries. and particularly diesel refineries. Um. but I really don't think after a week. there in in Ukraine that we are. going to see anything significant or. serious until after the winter. It seems. to me that given everything we've said,

you know, Vladimir Putin thinks he can. inflict so much pain on Ukraine over the. winter. Why on earth would he want to. stop doing something now? So I I don't. see anything in the future.