I don't know whether you've noticed, but both countries perform robotic drone operation (on land, air and on the water) well above the abilities of direct radio

I don't know whether you've noticed, but both countries perform robotic drone operation (on land, air and on the water) well above the abilities of direct radio communication in a highly radio jammed space for some time now. The tech and the infrastructure required for that is non trivial and is being built and evolves every day. Most likely, for this specific case the civilian infrastructure was used for relaying traffic. This is one of the reason why Russia shuts down internet in the areas of deep aerial drone strikes. Keep in mind that according to the reports this operation was planned for more than a year and was not something done without deep planning.