Inside the Ukrainian attack that pushes Russia back - with a key role for Starlink

Inside the Ukrainian attack that pushes Russia back - with a key role for Starlink

Author, Dan Johnson

Role, BBC correspondent - from eastern Ukraine

Published 7 minutes ago

Reading time: 5 minutes

A Russian drone darts across a computer screen, surprising commanders monitoring the battlefield via a live feed from their bunker.

While one of them holds a cigarette in one hand and a radio in the other, he calls for their drone to drop it, and warns the soldiers below of the threat. The men appear dangerously exposed during their long march across open terrain from their positions on the front line. They are being replaced after three months spent pushing Russian forces back.

This forms part of Operation Vivaldi, a Ukrainian counter-offensive that Kiev says has “liberated” 277 square kilometers in the eastern Donbass region in recent months.

The name reflects the four phases of the offensive, which succeeded in thwarting a Russian encirclement movement that threatened to besiege key “Fortress Belt” cities still under Ukrainian control.

While Russia this month continues to bomb Ukraine from the air, crippling its energy infrastructure and killing large numbers of civilians across the country, it is Ukraine that has made recent gains on the ground.

Kiev says that it inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces, as the number of Russian losses reached 8,000 victims in Operation Vivaldi alone, and nearly 50,000 along the front line during the month of September, while Ukraine suffered limited losses in return.

The Institute for War Studies reported that pro-Russian military bloggers acknowledged the Ukrainian advance, and expressed their fear that this would lead to more losses for Russia in the future.

No Russian official has publicly acknowledged Ukrainian gains. Russian Defense Ministry briefings say only that it was “repelling attacks” in the Liman area or “improving the tactical situation on the front.”

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Despite the Ukrainian progress, Russian drones are still present everywhere. Phoenix, commander of the "Silver Trinity" unit of the "Revenge Brigade," says that his men face an average of ten raids per day.

Phoenix focuses his attention on the live broadcast as a Ukrainian interceptor drone swoops in, hovers for a few seconds and then drops a net over the Russian drone, pulling it out of the sky. This Russian drone was intended for reconnaissance, but if it had spotted the soldiers, another drone loaded with explosives would have followed it.

This moment of danger embodies the multiple layers that make up the modern battlefield. The command bunker receives live images from a camera hovering in the air, while a Ukrainian attack drone below attacks an enemy reconnaissance plane, which would have called for more air firepower.

Integrated with all of this is the “Starshield” system, the military version of Elon Musk’s “Starlink” satellite communications network, which provides broadband connectivity across the battlefield.

Ukraine said this week, with the conclusion of Operation Vivaldi, that restrictions had been imposed on the regime without warning, limiting its capabilities.

Musk and media reports indicate that the decision may have come from the White House. Although Ukraine does not rely entirely on Starshield, it is a key tool in its arsenal, and vital for interception and medium-range strike drones. The realization that this tool could be restricted without any prior warning or consultation has caused great concern in Ukraine.

Under air control battle, unmanned ground vehicles move back and forth to transport supplies, evacuate the wounded, or, increasingly, to lead attacks against the enemy.

Everything here depends on digital communication: to see, move, fly, communicate, and shoot. But at the bottom of the pyramid, it is still the humans in the trenches who control the land.

The exhausted soldiers arrived safely at the command center. After 95 days of progress on the front line, an influential meeting takes place.

The infantryman, who goes by the code name "Diller," says he feels strong, but is finally happy to be home: "It's an amazing operation. Over the course of more than three months, we changed positions four times."

He says that what was most frightening were the Russian drones, which were operated remotely and insisted on chasing their targets.

Commander Phoenix said the preparation for the attack was "tremendous."

He added: “The men trained for months. We had to completely restructure our approach because before we were in a defensive position, but now we had to move to the attack.”

Robots and drones led the attack on Russian positions, and for the first time, remote-controlled explosive vehicles were dropped behind Russian lines, and 250 Russian soldiers surrendered. According to Ukrainian leaders, their year-long campaign has liberated about 16 towns and villages from Russian occupation.

In Karbyvka, a village that had been occupied since April, the Ukrainians found only one local resident still there, 61-year-old Volodymyr Zamota, who remained alone after his neighbors fled the Russian advance in 2025. He says he spent eight months in complete isolation.

“As they say, hope dies last,” he told me. “I am the only person left in the entire village, and the village is almost completely destroyed,” he added.

He continued: “I thought I would live until old age without going through something like this, but it happened. "It is a terrible tragedy."

This devastation exemplifies the nature of the region that Ukraine has just regained control of. The risks are still too high for residents to return, if their homes are still standing at all. But Ukrainian soldiers are celebrating reclaiming these territories, halting the Russian advance, and the future possibilities this operation may open.

Andrei Heit, Chief of Staff of the Revenge Brigade, explained: “The real value of this lies in securing better positions, more convenient lines and a bridgehead that gives us a superior position.”

He added: "This allows us to create the necessary conditions for subsequent successful operations, seize the initiative in the battle, and plan successful maneuvers in the future... Each of these steps constitutes a building block on the path to victory."

All of this may be threatened by limitations on American technology and intelligence. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have reached their lowest levels ever.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that he feels he was “betrayed” by US President Donald Trump, who declared that he is “not a fan” of his Ukrainian counterpart, saying that dealing with him is more difficult than dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He replied: “Yes, of course I think so. "I just want to know when it will happen, when this will all finally end."