Elon Musk’s company, once hailed for aiding the besieged country, now appears to be helping its invaders as well.

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.

  • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
    164·
    9 months ago

    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

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        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.

        • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
          2·
          9 months ago

          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.

          Source

          • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            9 months ago

            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.

            • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
              2·
              9 months ago

              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.