As Ukraine accuses Russia of terrorism with deadly train attack, is Starlink helping Moscow attack civilians?

Kyiv – A Russian drone crashed into a Ukrainian passenger train traveling in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least five people, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

“In any country, a drone attack on a civilian train would be considered the same way: purely as an act of terrorism,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said in a social media post that, according to preliminary information, three Iranian-made Shahed attack drones were involved in the attack, hitting the engine and a passenger car, causing a fire.

“There were 291 passengers on board. People were evacuated as quickly as possible,” he said, echoing Zelenskyy in calling the attack “a direct act of Russian terror against civilians. No military targets.”

The Russian government consistently denies attacking civilian infrastructure, but there was no specific reaction from the Kremlin or the Russian military to accusations that it had deliberately attacked a train carrying civilians.

Is Russia using Starlink to lethal effect?

Attacks on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure have intensified in recent months, and experts say Russia has adapted its offensive capabilities to evade Ukraine’s air defenses.

Last year, the Ukrainian Air War Monitor The magazine noted an 18% decrease in the drone interception rate in Ukraine.

Oleksii Balesta, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories, told News themezone on Wednesday that Russia has been using larger drones in greater numbers, which is increasing the lethality of its attacks.

But according to a recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, Another reason for Russia’s deadliest attacks is its use of Starlink satellite systems to achieve objectives with greater precision.

This week, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski raised the issue with Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns and operates the Starlink satellite network. In a post on Musk’s X platform, Sikorski called on the American businessman to “prevent the Russians from using Starlinks to attack Ukrainian cities.”

On Musk also highlighted Ukraine’s use of the Starlink system for military communications.

Two Ukrainian defense analysts have said the train could have been hit by Shaheds, a favored weapon of Russia amid its ongoing large-scale invasion, equipped with SpaceX technology.

“Russia has started using Starlink on other drones and is now also using it on Shaheds,” analyst Olena Kryzhanivska. he told News themezone on Wednesday. “Yesterday’s attack was no surprise. It was expected.”

Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian military analyst and drone warfare expert, said in a social media post on Wednesday that the moving train was attacked by “Shaheds with online control.”

“It was not the locomotive, but the center of the train,” Beskrestnov noted in his post, accusing the Russian drone pilot of attacking a passenger car, “intentionally and consciously,” and specifically questioning whether Starlink could have been used.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from News themezone about claims that its Starlink technology could have been used in the drone attack on the train and by Russian forces more generally to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Kryzhanivska said trains are easy targets for Russian precision-guided weapons.

“The territory of Ukraine is not attacked uniformly by air defense systems and mobile fire units,” Kryzhanivska said. “There is no protocol on what to do when a Shahed drone approaches a train. What can the crew do? Should they stop the train? Or continue moving?”

At least 11 people were killed and dozens wounded in attacks across Ukraine overnight Tuesday involving 165 drones launched by Russia, including those that hit the train in the Kharkiv region, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.