Reports that Russian forces were using the Starlink service within Ukraine first appeared in Ukrainian media, citing social-media posts. Prominent Russian volunteer groups supporting the Russian invasion have also shown off Starlink terminals purchased for army units.
In a Feb. 8 tweet, SpaceX officials said the company “does not do business of any kind with the Russian Government or its military. Starlink is not active in Russia, meaning service will not work in that country. SpaceX has never sold or marketed Starlink in Russia, nor has it shipped equipment to locations in Russia.”
Multiple Russian companies advertise Starlinks for sale, including iMiele.ru and DJIRussia.
“If Russian stores are claiming to sell Starlink for service in that country, they are scamming their customers,” the tweet said.
But Russians can easily acquire Starlinks from abroad and then bring them back to distribute to their forces, the second Ukrainian source noted.
But Russians can easily acquire Starlinks from abroad and then bring them back to distribute to their forces, the second Ukrainian source noted.
Mmm. That works with some hardware, but Starlink breaks things up into cells, like a cell network, so that it knows where to transmit.
You might be able to use it in a cell right on the front line, but Starlink can figure out beyond that where a user is.
googles
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-start-using-starlink-more-124026192.html
As noted, Russians are obtaining Starlink terminals through “parallel import” or so-called volunteer resellers. The purchase is made through third-party countries and intermediary individuals.
However, Militarnyi sources note that, from the Russian side, Starlink operates only in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Additionally, citing engineer Oleh Kutkov, who is involved with Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military, it is emphasised that within a 20-kilometre zone on the frontline, it is technologically impossible to distinguish whose terminal can operate and whose cannot.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-starlink-ukraine-war-elon-musk-1868125
Russian news outlets also report that Starlink satellite communications systems are now being sold via multiple Russian online stores, supplied via an intermediary in Dubai. The systems are being sold to the Russian volunteer units for use in the annexed regions of Ukraine, according to the local publications.
While the Starlink network doesn’t work in Russia, it is now able to be used in the four annexed regions and in Crimea, which Putin annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russian news outlet ComNews reported.
The manager of one company supplying equipment for military needs emphasized that regular units under the Russian Armed Forces are banned from using Starlink equipment, and said they are used only by volunteer units.
Hmm.
So it sounds like the story here us that irregular units that purchase service abroad are still able to use the units in Ukrainian territory, including occupied territory.
considers
I’m pretty sure that it’s possible for Starlink to filter these out, maybe at the cost of some false positives. They could just allow Ukrainian domestic users. Though…hmm. Starlink may also be the only way for Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories to reach the outside Internet.
I’m not totally sure that using an American communications network when you’re Russia and at war is necessarily such a hot idea. The earlier situation where Russian forces commandeered the cell phones of Ukrainian citizens led to some major intelligence breaches after Ukrainian intelligence was able to monitor the calls. It’s not clear to me who banned regular units from using Starlink, but I assume that that’s the Russian government.
I’m not totally sure that using an American communications network when you’re Russia and at war is necessarily such a hot idea.
It helps that the owner of said network is pro-Russia
How is he pro-Russia?
How is he pro-Russia?
Ukraine’s first drone boat assaults were specifically disabled mid-route by Musk, leaving them adrift in the water while Russian warships were free to continue to kill Ukrainians. This also led to Russia capturing one of the adrift drones for study.
The US DoD was then forced to step in and write it into the contract that Musk is not free to simply disable starlink units being used by Ukraine’s armed forces.
That is not true. Elon did not disable Starlink, it was never enabled there in the first place as it would be against the sanctions set by the United States. When Ukraine realized this they contacted Musk and asked him to enable it which he refused because not only would that be illegal for him to do that would also make him personally involved in the war effort.
Here’s a quote from Walter Isaacson, author of the book this claim originated from:
To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.
that would cause a major war
Russia already invaded Ukraine at that point, can’t start a war that was already started.
But, point taken on it not being specifically disabled, but rather never (at the time) enabled in that geofence.
It’s a rare quality these days to be capable of updating prior beliefs in the face of new information and I applaud you for that.
With the DoD taking over the starlink contract with Ukraine I’m pretty sure starlink works in occupied territories now.
That means there could be Ukrainian operatives behind enemy lines using starlink to communicate so you can’t just assume anything on one side of the border is Russians.
They gotta add some filtering at the account/serial number level and then have a way to disable satellites that fall into enemy hands.
One way could be accounts requiring another rolling authorization code that the military can hand out on an ongoing basis so if a satellite is unknowingly lost it can be disabled.
Another could be SpaceX/DoD giving all starlink locations in the region and asking the military which ones are them, and disabling the rest on an ongoing basis?
That means there could be Ukrainian operatives behind enemy lines using starlink to communicate so you can’t just assume anything on one side of the border is Russians.
Another could be SpaceX/DoD giving all starlink locations in the region and asking the military which ones are them, and disabling the rest on an ongoing basis?
I mean, they could from a technical standpoint, but in a scenario where Ukrainians are hypothetically using it covertly, that’d kill their cover. Other receivers on the ground can see the emissions from the stations broadcasting, and will be able to use radio direction finding to locate them. Russia may not know the contents of the data being sent – it may be encrypted – but if the only transmitters that are allowed are Ukrainian operatives in occupied territory, I expect that it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re going to look into transmissions.
The Russians could just do that anyway couldn’t they? They know which ones they are using and can ignore those signals.
It takes time to track things though, you could probably do short bursts and go undetected?
They know which ones they are using and can ignore those signals.
I doubt that the irregulars using it have informed Moscow that they’re doing so; if they were, they’d presumably be told not to use it as well.
And you’ll have any random civilians that can get it.
If Ukraine only whitelists people who are working for them, though, then those people are gonna be the only sources.
They could maybe try to blacklist just the irregulars, leave any civilians.
It takes time to track things though,
In World War II, maybe.
If a listener has an antenna array and are logging received data, all they need to do is receive a definite signal once. Record a log with precise timestamps on two antenna arrays, and that’ll be enough to identify a transmission’s location.
EDIT: Here’s a $500 software-defined radio with an antenna array that random people can go out and buy capable of doing this.
Over on GitHub Corey (ckoval7) has released a new open source radio direction program called “DF Aggregator”. This software is able to receive bearings and locations from multiple remotely networked KerberosSDRs, and display them on a map.
If you weren’t already aware KerberosSDR is our 4-channel phase coherent capable RTL-SDR unit that we previously crowdfunded back in 2018. With a 4-channel phase coherent RTL-SDR interesting applications like radio direction finding (RDF), passive radar and beam forming become possible. It can also be used as four separate RTL-SDRs for multichannel monitoring.
A single KerberosSDR combined with an antenna array is able to determine a bearing towards a signal source. By using multiple KerberosSDR units spread over a large area it is possible to triangulate the location of a transmitter and display it on a map.
Exactly. They all have to have hardware ids and starlink already geofences the consumer versions.
and then have a way to disable satellites that fall into enemy hands
I assume you mean terminals that fall into enemy hands? Either that or Roscosmos has some surprising new capabilities I am unaware of.
Whoops. Yes.
Elon was able to select and shut down exact receivers to stop a Ukranaian attack on Russia that would have been devastating from a last minute plea in desperation from Putin.
Elon was not born in the US and does not have the US best interests as his own. I think he should be forced to sell to an actual American or goverment ideally who wouldn’t abuse it to help your biggest enemy.
This technology should not be private.
