Even the use of Starlink would not allow Ukrainian drones to effectively hunt down Iskander-M missile launchers deep inside Russian territory, according to Serhiy Rakhmanin, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense committee.

In his assessment, the main problem is not communications but reaction time and the speed of the weapons used. After launching a missile, a mobile Iskander launcher needs approximately 15–20 minutes to leave its firing position and move to cover. During that time, a Ukrainian drone would not be able to cover the distance from the border to the launch area.

Rakhmanin stressed that even the fastest jet-powered drones would not solve the problem. With or without Starlink, their flight time would remain too long to strike a mobile launcher before it changes position.

The lawmaker considers ballistic missiles the only suitable weapon for such a mission, although their effectiveness would also depend on a number of additional factors.

Ukraine, however, does not currently have domestically produced ballistic missiles in serial production. Rakhmanin hopes that production could begin in the near future but acknowledges that Ukraine would not be able to scale it up to match Russian production volumes.