In the brutal front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war, information can mean the difference between survival and destruction. Ukrainian cyber teams uncovered a shocking way to turn Russia’s illegal Starlink use against them—tricking enemy troops into revealing their exact GPS locations. This video breaks down the secret operation, the hackers behind it, and how AI, drones, and satellite internet became weapons on the modern battlefield. Watch until the end to see how one digital trap changed the war.
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/P9ZqKwjn
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/P9ZqKwjn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In the fearsome frontline kill zones of the Russia-Ukraine war, information is everything.
00:05The more you know about your enemy's location and movement, the more power you have.
00:10The challenging part is actually obtaining that information.
00:13But what if you had a way to make your opponent literally reveal their exact positions
00:17without even realizing what they were doing?
00:20That's exactly what some genius Ukraine hackers have managed to do, and this is how.
00:25It all boils down to one specific piece of technology, Starlink.
00:29A satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
00:33Starlink has played a huge role over the course of the entire conflict,
00:37having been used as far back as February 2022 to replace internet and communication networks in Ukraine
00:43that have been damaged or destroyed by the Russians.
00:46In the years since then, Ukrainian civilians, government, and military forces have all made use of this service.
00:52Civilians in war-torn areas have relied on the service to contact the outside world
00:57or keep in touch with family and friends, for example,
01:00while the likes of schools, hospitals, and even the trains of Ukrainian railways
01:04have also harnessed the powers of Starlink's satellites to provide vital services for the population.
01:10Meanwhile, despite protestations from both Musk and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell,
01:15the Ukrainian defense forces have also found ways to harness Starlink's capabilities
01:20to help them defend their territory and carry out counterattacks against the invaders.
01:24It's been called the essential backbone of communication on Ukraine's battlefields,
01:30with many units having at least one Starlink terminal to help them stay connected and gather vital data.
01:35Drone crews also found ways to use Starlink to help pilot their unmanned aerial vehicles,
01:41UAVs, in attacks on Russian forces, with some drones even equipped with their own Starlink terminals too.
01:46Russia, meanwhile, has been prohibited from officially using Starlink within its own borders,
01:52with SpaceX restricting access through a technique called duo-fencing,
01:56which essentially involves limiting the availability of the service to specific areas.
02:00However, maintaining those restrictions in contested and occupied parts of Ukraine
02:05has proven far more difficult,
02:07with Russian forces reportedly able to use smuggled terminals in some frontline regions.
02:12For the early stages of the war,
02:13this meant that Ukraine had an enormous advantage in terms of connectivity and communications.
02:19But as time went by,
02:20things started to change.
02:22In early 2024, for instance,
02:24Ukraine's defense intelligence revealed that Russian forces were using Starlink satellite communications.
02:30In fact,
02:31Ukrainian troops reported that the Russians had been using Starlink for quite a long time,
02:36with thousands of terminals in their possession.
02:38No one was sure exactly how this had happened.
02:41SpaceX confirmed that it hadn't sold any terminals to Russia either directly or indirectly.
02:47It added that it didn't do any business with the Russian government or its military,
02:51and Starlink confirmed that its service was not functional in Russia.
02:54The company also threatened to sanction or deactivate any third parties found to have supplied Starlink products to Russian forces.
03:01So, Ukraine's intelligence agents dug a little deeper.
03:05They found and released a radio intercept of Russians discussing the possibility of buying Starlink terminals through an Arab nation.
03:13In the meantime, more evidence emerged of Starlink usage among the Russian army.
03:17While the terminals didn't work within Russia itself,
03:20they were functional in frontline areas,
03:22and that presented a major dilemma for Ukraine and SpaceX itself.
03:26If the company continued to allow Starlink to work in these locations,
03:30then both sides would be able to benefit,
03:32and the Russians could use their illegally obtained terminals to orchestrate attacks on Ukrainian positions.
03:38At the same time,
03:39if SpaceX decided to expand its geofencing measures to stop Starlink use by Russian forces at frontline locations,
03:46then that might also interfere with Ukrainian access and communications too.
03:50Ukrainian teams, therefore,
03:52offered to team up with Starlink engineers to work out a way to disable the service for Russian users without
03:57impacting Ukraine.
03:59In May 2024,
04:01it seemed as though the story had reached a positive conclusion.
04:04The Pentagon and SpaceX announced that Russian use of Starlink satellites had been officially blocked.
04:10However,
04:10John Plum,
04:11the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense,
04:16warned that Russia might still find ways to work around the block.
04:19At this time,
04:20we have successfully countered Russian use,
04:22but I'm certain Russia will continue to try and find ways to exploit Starlink and other commercial communications systems.
04:28It will continue to be a problem.
04:30I think we wrapped our heads around it and found good solutions for both Starlink and Ukraine.
04:35Plum was right.
04:36Mere months after the Pentagon's announcement,
04:38more evidence emerged from Ukraine of Russia using drones fitted with Starlink systems,
04:43and it seemed that the problem would never go away.
04:45In fact,
04:46in 2024,
04:47it only got worse.
04:49Evidence showed that tens of thousands of Starlink satellite receivers were still being smuggled into Russia via various nations,
04:56including Turkey,
04:57Central Asia,
04:58and the Middle East.
04:59Once they made their way to the front lines,
05:01those same receivers made life a lot easier for Russian troops and their commanding officers.
05:06They could use them to extend the range of their attack drones,
05:09while also making them more precise and harder to jam with electronic warfare countermeasures.
05:13This, in turn, made them more effective and deadly.
05:16Russian officers also leveraged Starlink satellite internet to enjoy real-time battlefield mapping,
05:22with up-to-date information about troop positions and terrain imagery,
05:25so they could more easily and efficiently coordinate their soldiers and resources.
05:29A Ukrainian cyber warfare expert codenamed Goldfinger summed up the situation to reporters.
05:35Since 2025,
05:37they started to use Starlink to control their big drones and give a higher precision for the attacks,
05:42give them an advantage to bypass our anti-drone systems,
05:45so it was becoming more important and dangerous for us.
05:48The situation was looking increasingly grim.
05:51By early February 2026,
05:54Ukraine was reeling after a long-lasting and particularly intense bombing campaign from the Russians,
05:59combined with the crippling effects of a long and cold winter,
06:01with recurring blackouts as the Kremlin's drone swarms targeted substations and energy facilities across the country.
06:08Yarrow, an intelligence officer with Ukraine's 128th Heavy Mechanized Brigade,
06:13admitted that his country's prospects at the time weren't the brightest.
06:17The enemy was attempting to infiltrate their units through indirect assault operations,
06:22particularly by exploiting poor weather,
06:24to move their infantry between our positions and continue their advance.
06:27He and his brigade were attempting to fend off Russian assaults not far from Zaporizhia City,
06:32in southeastern Ukraine at the time.
06:35Further to the east,
06:36Russian forces were also gradually advancing towards the city of Ulaipola,
06:40while Ukrainian defenders were being pushed back in places like Pokrosk, Liman and elsewhere.
06:45Then SpaceX did something that turned the whole situation upside down.
06:49Kyiv appealed to the company to introduce a new registration requirement for any Starlink terminal being used in Ukraine.
06:56It agreed and quickly implemented the new system.
06:58All of a sudden, anyone wanting to access Starlink services anywhere in Ukraine,
07:03including occupied territories and frontline locations,
07:06had to visit an authorized service center in unoccupied territories and present their passport.
07:11If they didn't do that, their devices simply wouldn't work.
07:14For Ukraine, it was a major victory and a hugely important turning point.
07:18For Russia, it was a catastrophe.
07:21In an instant, countless troops, units and commanders were blinded,
07:25and even Russian officials were forced to admit that this move had dramatically impacted their operations.
07:30Andrei Medvedev, for example, the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma,
07:35took to Telegram to say that,
07:36as a result of SpaceX's actions,
07:39instead of a planned strike against the enemy, we have a hellish mess.
07:43Russian military bloggers also raged about the decision online,
07:46like Alexander Sladkov, who admitted that the loss of Starlink access
07:50certainly creates significant difficulties,
07:53and the two major's Telegram channel, which wrote,
07:55The fascist, beloved by millions, Elon Musk,
07:58serves the interests of the armed forces of Ukraine.
08:01This may explain the massive failure of terminals that began yesterday evening on the front.
08:06In this way, the genius, adored by liberals,
08:08once again assisted the armed forces of Ukraine in killing our soldiers.
08:12Other military bloggers noted that Russia was trying to work around the issue,
08:17but a no viable alternative to Starlink for the time being.
08:20They added that the Kremlin was looking at options like techniques to bypass the registration process,
08:25or a shift towards using Chinese satellites,
08:28but confirmed that it would take quite some time for any of those prospective solutions to come to fruition.
08:33But time is a precious commodity for Russian troops on the front lines.
08:37Most of them only last a matter of days in the kill zones before being either wounded or worse,
08:43and they couldn't afford to wait around for the authorities to figure out a way to fix this issue.
08:47So, they got desperate,
08:49and a group of Ukrainian hackers took full advantage of that desperation.
08:53Now, quick side note,
08:54this is why we make the military show,
08:57to explain how power really moves.
08:59If you're new here, hit subscribe so you don't miss what's next.
09:03Now, some Russians realized that the only way to get Starlink service back
09:07was to find a way to register their terminals.
09:09They couldn't do it themselves,
09:10as that would involve going deep into Ukrainian territory
09:13and somehow obtaining Ukrainian passports.
09:16It was far too risky.
09:17So, they started seeking out Ukrainians who might be willing to help them.
09:21They offered large sums of money to anyone who would register the terminals on their behalf,
09:26restoring their communications.
09:27It was a desperate move,
09:29but for the troops on the ground,
09:30it was the only option they had left.
09:32What they didn't realize, however,
09:34was that their appeals had caught the attention of the 256 Cyber Assault Division,
09:39a team of Ukrainian cyber warfare specialists,
09:42led by Goldfinger himself,
09:43a former soldier who was wounded in battle,
09:46but decided to continue serving his country in the digital realm as a hacker.
09:50The division sensed that this was an opportunity for them to set a trap for the Russians
09:54that could change the course of the war and save countless lives in the process.
09:58They decided to pose as a group of cyber criminals
10:01and began reaching out to desperate Russian troops,
10:04effectively offering to register their Starlink receivers for them in Ukraine
10:07in exchange for a cryptocurrency payment.
10:10Once someone had taken the bait,
10:12the scam began.
10:13The Ukrainian hackers lured their victims deeper and deeper into the trap,
10:17first asking them to provide some mundane pieces of information,
10:20such as the serial numbers of their devices.
10:22This all seemed normal and not particularly risky to the Russians,
10:26so they went ahead and submitted their details.
10:29Then the hackers went further, asking for additional info.
10:32Eventually, once they had actually received payment from the Russians for their services,
10:37they moved on to the final stage of their scheme,
10:39asking the soldiers for their exact GPS coordinates.
10:42By this point, many Russian soldiers were already all in on the idea.
10:46They'd paid and given away plenty of information already,
10:49so they acquiesced to the request, willfully providing pinpoint data about their locations.
10:55From there, all the hackers had to do was pass that information on to Ukrainian military units
11:00fighting on the front lines, who could then sneak and destroy the Russians with ease.
11:04It's an outrageous trick, but it works.
11:06The 256 Division reports that more than 2,600 Russians
11:10have fallen headfirst into the trap and given up their whereabouts.
11:14This, in turn, has helped Ukraine's military to find out the exact coordinates of Russian command posts,
11:20drone pilot positions, troop concentrations, and headquarters.
11:24Investigative journalist Maxim Tucker,
11:26who had made an entire documentary about these genius Ukrainian hackers,
11:30provided additional data about how their scam works
11:33during an episode of the Times Radio Frontline podcast.
11:36He explained that the team is made up of just six people,
11:39but they were able to design an AI chatbot that does most of the work for them,
11:43reaching out to Russians and gathering their data one piece at a time.
11:47This allows them to target huge numbers of enemy forces,
11:51despite being a relatively small group.
11:53He added that the hackers also operate in other ways,
11:56using various cyber techniques to break into Russian email accounts,
11:59or using fake AI-generated female profiles to chat with Russian frontline troops
12:04and persuade them to reveal valuable details about their positions and movements.
12:09It all helps to build up Ukraine's library of intelligence
12:12and paint a clearer picture of the battlefield.
12:14As soon as the hackers find out anything important,
12:17they pass it on to military command centers.
12:20Tucker even filmed the very moment a call came through to a command post from Goldfinger himself,
12:25revealing that a Russian soldier was hiding out nearby.
12:28He explains that when Ukraine's teams receive this kind of information,
12:32they don't simply send out drones right away or bomb those areas without verification.
12:37They don't want to run the risk of harming civilians or wasting resources,
12:41so they first carry out surveillance to confirm that the Russians are really there
12:44before planning their next steps.
12:46In his article for the Times,
12:49Tucker cites an example in which Yarrow of the 128th Heavy Mechanized Brigade
12:53received coordinates from the 256th Division and maps them onto reconnaissance imagery,
12:58zooming in to examine the exact area where Russians are believed to be based.
13:02He soon spots the tell-tale signs of enemy troops,
13:05including fresh tracks and stacks of branches camouflaging their shelter.
13:09Once Yarrow confirmed the intel,
13:11he passed the coordinates to the next link in the chain,
13:14Ukrainian drone operators,
13:15who then conduct a precision strike on the shelter.
13:18Yarrow and his fellow officers watch the live feed unfold
13:21as a kamikaze drone collides with the structure's roof,
13:24bringing the whole shelter down around the Russians huddled up inside.
13:28Moments before impact,
13:29the drone's camera spots something else,
13:32a satellite dish on the building's roof,
13:34not pointing at the sky,
13:35but towards a nearby village.
13:37This too has become a common sight throughout frontline locations.
13:41Once SpaceX severed Starlink service,
13:43Russians started to use satellite dishes to create Wi-Fi bridges between units to allow them to communicate.
13:49On the one hand,
13:50it's an innovative way to work around the problem.
13:53On the other hand,
13:53it also makes it even easier for Ukraine to work out where the Russians are hiding.
13:57They simply have to look for the satellite dishes,
14:00see which way they're pointing,
14:01and follow the lines to find more troops.
14:04Yarrow added that even after giving away their location data to the hackers,
14:08many Russians remained in the same position,
14:10at least for a little while,
14:11giving Ukraine time to find and eliminate them.
14:14There are a few possible explanations for this.
14:17It may be, for example,
14:18that some Russian soldiers are simply too foolish to realize that they've been tricked.
14:22Alternatively, they might understand that they've been scammed,
14:25but are too afraid to admit to their superiors or fellow squad mates,
14:28so they stay silent and hope that their mistake won't prove fatal.
14:32In some cases,
14:33Russians may want to relocate,
14:35but simply aren't able to do so,
14:36because they're based in such dangerous locations,
14:39with Ukrainian drones buzzing overhead,
14:41scouring the scene for any signs of movement.
14:44As a result,
14:45many of these troops are being wiped out,
14:47all because of their own naivety,
14:49which has made life a lot easier for Ukrainian drone operators.
14:53Operators like Katarina,
14:54aged 23 and 4 months pregnant at the time,
14:57Tucker met with her.
14:58She decided to sign up for military service,
15:01after witnessing the horrors inflicted by Russian occupiers
15:04in her own village during the first year of the war.
15:07My fellow villagers suffered during occupation.
15:09Some of the men were taken prisoner,
15:11one was tortured to death.
15:13They threw grenades into basements where people were hiding,
15:16too terrified to come out.
15:17Some people died as a result.
15:19Now,
15:20she's one of many drone pilots,
15:22who used data obtained by the hackers,
15:24to take out Kremlin soldiers,
15:26slowing the enemy's advances,
15:28and weakening its military machine,
15:29one strike at a time.
15:31I just feel a thirst for revenge,
15:33for everything they've done here and are doing.
15:35I'm protecting my sisters, brothers,
15:36little nephews,
15:37and in fact,
15:38all the children in Ukraine,
15:39who are suffering from Russian aggression.
15:41And I'm doing this,
15:42so that my children can live in peace later on.
15:45So, how effective has this method been?
15:48Well, while Tucker acknowledges that it's impossible to calculate the exact numbers of Russian casualties caused by this operation,
15:55Ukraine's frontline fighters have definitely felt its effects.
15:58They revealed that Russian strikes on Ukrainian lines have fallen by an astonishing 45% since Starlink terminals were shut
16:05down and the hacking began.
16:07Tucker suggests that countless lives have been saved as a result, and other cyber brigades elsewhere along the front lines
16:13have learned a lot from the 256 division.
16:15Some have even started emulating their methods to gather even more Starlink data and conduct even more devastating attacks against
16:23their enemies.
16:24Of course, it's unlikely that this method will work forever.
16:27The Russians will eventually realize what's happening, and fewer troops will be willing to give away their location data.
16:33But Ukraine's hackers are persistent.
16:35They're already working on new tricks and techniques to catch the enemy off guard,
16:39and they're beginning to lean more heavily on AI technologies like AI personas or AI design hacking tools to power
16:46up their operations.
16:47This has helped them break into email inboxes of Kremlin officials and Moscow businessmen,
16:52as well as uncover the classified locations of Russian arms factories which have since been struck with long-range missiles.
16:59In short, while these cyber teams may not be out there on the front lines firing rifles or organizing artillery
17:05strikes,
17:05they're still having an extraordinary impact on this war, using innovative out-of-the-box thinking to spread chaos, confusion
17:12and collapse among the Kremlin's ranks.
17:15And the latest intelligence shows that Russia's collapse is far greater than anyone anticipated,
17:20which you can learn more about in this video.
17:22Alternatively, check out this video to see how even hardcore Russian nationalists and former loyalists
17:28are turning against the country's president, Vladimir Putin.
17:31And for more military news, insights and analysis, subscribe to The Military Show today.
Comments