There’s no denying that the Russia — Ukraine conflict has been shared in extensive detail on social media. As such, one of the best ways to stay ahead of what’s happening across the front lines of Ukraine is to turn our OSINT skills to social media and analyse social media posts to find out about the conflict.
The Telegram wrap is a recurring piece that looks at interesting pieces of Ukrainian language information that have been posted to Telegram recently. With this, we aim to cover all the latest developments regarding drones and the usage of the radio spectrum.
One thing to remember though. The posts are taken from Telegram and written up without any fact-checking or additional analysis performed, so you’ll need to draw your own conclusions regarding authenticity and credibility.

KAB Navigation Upgrade

First off the press, we’ve got rumours of an upgraded navigation system for the KAB glide bomb. Rumoured to be a similar design to the 12-element system that was recently seen on the Shahed, the system is no doubt fitted to assist in overcoming the GPS jamming we’ve heard plenty about on the front lines.
While it’s reported that currently only an 8-element system has been seen to be in use, with the 12-element design currently being used by the Shahed, it’s logical to wonder if we won't start to see the system migrate over to the KAB as well.
The KAB gave Russian forces the ability to use precision-guided missiles at range however, over time, its effectiveness has become reduced due to advancements in offensive EW.

Molniya Thermal Upgrade

We introduced the Molniya drone in a recent wrap. As a newer system integrated by the Russians, we are now seeing more information regarding the platform come to light. Now, it appears that Molinya has been upgraded with a Thermal camera system to help improve its utility in night and low-light conditions.
The thermal-equipped Mavic 3 has shown to have had great utility along the front lines, so it’s reasonable to expect that a thermal-equipped Molniya will contribute headaches to Ukrainian forces. While Russia has had plenty of problems integrating new systems without a headache, it appears that the Molinya gives them a functional system that is capable of further modification.

170Mhz Control

As we started this segment, we’ve noticed a trend that control frequencies are often significantly lower than the video feed systems. Earlier in the conflict, we’d often see systems working at 3 & 400 MHz in an attempt to evade offensive EW.
It appears that this trend won’t be changing any time soon, as the latest reports show drones with control frequencies working at 170 MHz. This is just above the 2 Mtr amateur bands, which run at around 145 MHz. If you’re into radio, you’ll know that this means a significant shift in antenna size,e but it appears that this platform is also carrying another little twist. After launch, the dipole rotates, giving a shift in polarisation. With up to 20 db loss available due to polarisation mismatch, it’s a quick and dirty way to reduce the effectiveness of electronic warfare systems.
There was also a second post about the Molniya this week that gave us further insight into how it’s typically operated.
It appears that for control, 190–550 MHz is typically used for long-range systems, while VTX operates at around 1.2 GHz. The longer wavelength of both frequencies no doubt helps the system to work effectively at distances close to the edge of the radio horizon.

The Invisible Battle

Like Maxim machine guns being used for drone defence, sometimes everything old is new again. The battle of the beams was first coined during the Second World War. As “Pathfinders” would fly ahead and use radio transmissions to help the bomber fleet navigate to their targets successfully, the opposing side would jam or even spoof the signal in an attempt to lead the bombers astray.
Now, in 2025, we see the battle of the beams taking on a more modern twist, as FPV and recon drone operators look for chunks of spectrum to operate in that aren’t badly affected by EW.
This is, in fact, one of the strengths of Software Defined Radio. Rather than parking on and listening to a single frequency, drone operators can use a computer system (of any kind) and a cheap USB system to look at large chunks of the spectrum visually. This makes it far easier to find a frequency that might work for offensive purposes.
Of course, with USB receivers being ridiculously cheap, both sides have access to such systems, meaning that once a control frequency pops up, it’s easier to identify and jam. Thus, we end up with the modern version of the battle of the beams, where drone operators and EW teams “spectrum hop” in an attempt to jam new signals as they arise.
A very electronic version of cat and mouse, with very real consequences for the winner.

Send The News

Have you got an interesting tip? Seen an intriguing Social Media post that you think needs some extra attention or research? We’re always looking for new stories that focus on current events and issues.
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