Ukraine: Russian forces use Starlink services

The Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate said on Sunday that Russian forces are using the Starlink satellite Internet service, provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in occupied areas of Ukraine.

SpaceX quickly sent Starlink terminals to help Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022, and they are important for communication on the battlefield in Kiev.

The company says it doesn’t deal with the Russian government or the Russian army.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense quoted spokesman Andrey Yusov as saying, “Instances have been recorded of the Russian occupation forces using these devices, and it appeared that they were using them on a regular basis”.

The directorate said in a statement that military units use this service, such as the Russian 83rd Air Assault Brigade, which is fighting near the besieged cities of Klyshchevka and Andreyevka in the partially occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

These statements are Ukraine’s first official statement regarding Russia’s alleged use of Starlink.

In a post on X on Sunday, Musk said, “To our knowledge, SpaceX hasn’t sold any Starlink stations to Russia, directly or indirectly.”

“A number of fake news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia… This is completely untrue,” Musk added in the post.

Two Ukrainian government sources told Reuters a few days ago that Russian use of the Starlink service had been monitored in the occupied Ukrainian territories.

One of them stated that they were trying to get data on the scope of this use.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence said it monitored a conversation between two soldiers about setting up Starlink stations and posted audio on Telegram as evidence.

Starlink said on February 8 that its stations weren’t active in Russia, and that SpaceX had never sold or marketed the service in Russia or shipped equipment to sites in Russia.

“If SpaceX obtains information that the Starlink station is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized entity, we will investigate the allegation and take action to deactivate the station if confirmed,” Starlink company wrote on the social media platform.