By Galina Korol | 2026-02-11

The passenger train was unmistakably civilian -- and, according to Ukrainian investigators and military experts, it may have been tracked and struck using a commercial satellite internet system never intended for combat.

On January 27, the train was traveling from Barvinkove in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region to Chop in Transcarpathia. It bore no markings that could identify it as a military target. The train had not gone more than a few dozen kilometers (about 20 miles) from its departure point in Izyum District when three Russian drones attacked it.

"Over 200 people were on the train, and 18 were in the carriage hit by one of the Russian drones," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media that evening.

Law enforcement officials later confirmed that six people were killed and two were hospitalized with serious injuries. Petro Tokar, head of the regional police, disclosed the toll January 30 during an interview with Suspilne.

Connectivity as a weapon

Attacks on civilian transport have long been routine in Ukraine. Russian drones increasingly strike trains, buses and private vehicles. What distinguishes recent attacks, Ukrainian officials and experts say, is connectivity -- and the growing use of satellite communications to guide drones toward moving targets.

Tokar said investigators could not rule out the possibility that the drones involved in the Barvinkove attack were equipped with Starlink terminals. Based on fragments recovered at the site, however, authorities could not conclusively determine whether the drones were remotely piloted.

"It's not out of the question that the drones may have been fitted out with Starlink," Tokar said, adding that the evidence was inconclusive.

Ukrainian military personnel and analysts began publicly documenting online control of Shahed-type drones in winter 2025. Among them was Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry known by the call sign Flash, who has repeatedly raised alarms on social media.

"Sadly, we're seeing that a BM-35 drone using Starlink reached Dnipro," Beskrestnov wrote January 26. Unlike earlier Molniya drones, he noted, the BM-35 runs on fuel and can fly up to 500 kilometers (about 310 miles). "The issue of the enemy using Starlink is becoming more pressing."

Valeriy Romanenko, an aviation expert and senior researcher at Ukraine's National Aviation University, told Kontur that Shahed drones were originally designed to hit stationary targets. Before launch, operators program the route and endpoint, and the drone flies without further communication.

Starlink changed that.

"If there's Starlink, the operator can change the Shahed's flight route at any time," Romanenko told Kontur. He said Russia also installed video cameras on the drones, allowing operators to see terrain and targets in real time and attack moving objects.

"A Shahed like this could fly to Lviv, Chernivtsi or Uzhhorod and strike a target there. There is no distance for Starlink," Romanenko said.

Although Starlink use is officially prohibited in Russia, observers say Russian forces obtained terminals through third countries. Romanenko said Russia previously used the system to communicate with reconnaissance drones and occupied Ukrainian territories, noting that Starlink coverage exists over Ukraine but not over Russia itself.

Emergency restrictions

Russia's use of Starlink did not go unnoticed.

On February 1, ArmyInform, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's official outlet, reported that SpaceX had applied temporary emergency restrictions to Starlink terminals at the ministry's request to counter Russian attack drones.

The system was not shut down entirely. Instead, SpaceX introduced technical measures designed to complicate the use of satellite communications for hostile purposes.

"Many users of the Starlink satellite communications system in Ukraine are already seeing the first countermeasures that SpaceX has taken at the request of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry," Beskrestnov wrote January 31.

He said the Defense Ministry is also revisiting how Starlink is used within the Ukrainian military, a sensitive issue complicated by service members' reluctance to register personal or volunteer-provided terminals.

"I must admit that there have already been such attempts, but many soldiers who use volunteer and personal Starlink didn't want to provide information to commanders," Beskrestnov said, attributing that to fears of losing connectivity.

He said the goal now is to build a system in which service members can share that information without distrusting their superiors. Beskrestnov also highlighted SpaceX's active involvement in helping Defense Ministry specialists.

Elon Musk, whose company operates Starlink, publicly confirmed the effort.

"Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked. Let us know if more needs to be done," Musk wrote February 1.

Romanenko said Russia's attempt to weaponize Starlink was a strategic error.

"With Starlink the Russians shot themselves in the foot," he said, adding that it will now be nearly impossible to bypass the system's verification "whitelist."

"Starlink's services will only be provided to subscribers who are on that list. The other subscribers won't get a signal," Romanenko said.

No real alternative

Bogdan Dolintse, an aviation expert and member of the Public Council of Ukraine's State Aviation Administration, told Kontur that before the restrictions, Starlink terminals could operate freely on moving platforms.

"They could be used in stationary mode and also on motor vehicles and on aircraft, including drones," Dolintse said, adding that platforms could operate at speeds up to 700 or 800 kilometers per hour (about 435 to 500 miles per hour).

That easily covered the 150 to 200 kilometers per hour (90 to 125 miles per hour) typical of attack and reconnaissance drones.

Starlink's architecture, however, makes moving objects vulnerable to filtering. The system tracks how frequently terminals switch between satellites, allowing it to calculate speed accurately.

"As of now two rules are being applied,” Dolintse said. If a platform exceeds 90 kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour) without Ukrainian registration, the terminal is blocked. Above 75 kilometers per hour (47 miles per hour), data transfer slows sharply.

In practice, using Starlink to control drones becomes pointless, Dolintse said.

The consequences for Russia will be significant, he argued. Large-scale military use of Starlink is becoming impossible, aside from isolated cases involving stolen documents or false registration.

Russian commentators have acknowledged the problem. Vladimir Orlov, chairman of the NGO Veche, said February 4 that Russia lacks any effective broadband alternative, noting that the long-discussed Rassvet satellite project remains unfinished.

That leaves Russia with inferior options, including terrestrial communications, mesh modems or traditional geostationary satellites -- all slower, less mobile and less reliable in wartime.

Russia's claims about building its own Starlink-like system are unrealistic in the near term, Romanenko said.

"Russia has no homegrown Starlink -- it's only in the blueprint stage," he noted, citing sanctions, severed research ties and chronic funding shortages. "During the war the money is going into large-scale production of bombs and missiles."