The fastest advance of the Ukrainians on the front in almost two years. The experts' explanation

Ukrainian forces recaptured 201 square kilometers of territory in a five-day span last week, from Wednesday to Sunday to be exact, according to an AFP analysis based on data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think-tank.

The area recaptured is almost equivalent to that gained by Russian forces in the entire month of December, and is the largest area recovered by Kiev forces in such a short period of time since the counteroffensive launched in June 2023.

“These Ukrainian counterattacks are likely taking advantage of the recent blocking of Russian forces' access to Starlink, which Russian military bloggers claim is causing battlefield communications and command and control problems,” said ISW, which works with the Critical Threats Project, another US think-tank.

Russia has lost access to terminals in Ukraine of the Starlink satellite internet network, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX company, after the Ukrainians installed filters on the connection to the satellite network.

Russia accused of blackmailing POW families for access to Starlink

Last week, Kiev accused Russia of blackmailing relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war to register in their names Starlink terminals that the Russian military could use to improve communications between its units and to control its drones.

“Looking for a way out of the difficult situation they are in, the occupiers contacted families of prisoners of war. We received information about cases of threats and requests that they (relatives of prisoners of war) officially register their Starlink terminal names. The technology was then to be used against Ukraine and Ukrainians,” said a note published by the Ukrainian state body for managing the issue of prisoners of war, according to the agencies EFE and Agerpres.

Recently, the authorities in Kiev opened, in collaboration with SpaceX, a mandatory register in which all users in Ukraine must register. Thus, unregistered terminals were blocked and registered users who provided services for Russian drones or for Russian units using Starlink on the front could be identified.