ISW: The Kremlin Is "cutting Off" Communications For Its Military

Telegram is effectively banned.

Russia appears to be planning and trying to restrict the use of Telegram in military units, which could exacerbate the occupation army's current communication problems, wrote the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a new report.

The ISW analysts drew attention to reports from Russian "war correspondents" that some Russian army units are forcing their soldiers to delete Telegram. This contradicts public statements by individual Russian officials that the military of the occupation army will be allowed to continue using Telegram to support combat operations.

At the same time, a prominent Russian "war correspondent" said on March 15 that sources on the ground had told him of instructions to soldiers to remove the Telegram app from their phones after all. This "war correspondent" claimed that Russian military police were checking phones to ensure that servicemen were deleting Telegram, and that the Russian military command was promoting the state-owned messenger Max as an alternative.

The aforementioned "war correspondent" instead complained that the Max messenger remains very inconvenient to use, and claimed that some special forces units have banned the use of Max (which ones, he did not specify). According to him, some Russian units do follow the order to remove Telegram and switch to Max, while other units continue to communicate via Telegram. As ISW emphasizes, the same "war correspondent" suggested that the discrepancies in the actual use of Telegram indicate that the orders probably come from specific units, but do not yet embody a universal approach of the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Institute for the Study of War recalls that on February 11, Kremlin officials voiced a series of statements about the abandonment of the use of Telegram for frontline communications in the Russian army. However, they later backtracked on these statements after widespread negative reaction from the Russian "war correspondent" community. Russian Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadaev said that Russian officials had not made any decisions to restrict Telegram in Russia's war against Ukraine.

One thing ISW emphasizes, however, is that evidence of a de facto Telegram ban in some Russian units contradicts the Kremlin's current public policy. The decision by some units to ban Telegram may indicate that Russia is still planning to ban Telegram on the front lines more universally, analysts suggest. They also voice the theory that such moves may indicate the desire of some Russian commanders to gain favor with the Kremlin by imposing such restrictions even before official orders from the Defense Ministry arrive. Blocking Telegram is likely to worsen the work of the Russian command and control system and exacerbate existing communication problems that Russian troops have been facing since Starlink was blocked on February 1, 2026, ISW stresses.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]