Russian forces using Elon Musk’s Starlink in occupied areas, Ukraine says – The Australian Financial Review

In a post on Sunday (Monday AEDT) made on X, Musk said, To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.

A number of false news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia, Musk added in the post on X, which he also owns. This is categorically false.

Russias defence ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Two Ukrainian government sources told Reuters earlier this week that Russian use of Starlink had been detected in occupied Ukrainian territory. One said they were trying to obtain data on the scale of such use.

The GUR agency said it had intercepted an exchange between two soldiers discussing setting up the terminals. It posted what it said was an audio clip of the exchange on the Telegram messenger by way of evidence.

GUR did not say how it thought the terminals had been obtained by Russian forces whether, for instance, they had been procured from abroad or captured from Ukrainian forces.

Starlink said on February 8 that its terminals were not active in Russia and that SpaceX had never sold or marketed the service in Russia, nor shipped equipment to locations in Russia.

In a statement posted on X, Starlink did not say anything about their possible use in occupied areas of Ukraine.

If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed, it said.

Reuters

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Russian forces using Elon Musk's Starlink in occupied areas, Ukraine says - The Australian Financial Review