Illegal Starlink terminals are aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.
Russian military forces are extensively utilizing illegally obtained terminals to enhance coordination during attacks, improving the effectiveness of drone and artillery strikes against Ukrainian troops. This is reported by The Washington Post, as noted by UNN.
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It is highlighted that the terminals, which enable commanders to monitor the battlefield using drones and ensure secure communication among soldiers, are subject to sanctions that prohibit the supply of American electronic devices to Moscow. However, a black market exists through which Russians acquire Starlink terminals. Their proliferation has been a significant factor in their recent successes during the offensive in Donbas.
Ukrainian officers from units in the Donetsk region report that Russia has narrowed the technological gap, making its forces more cohesive and increasing the quantity and accuracy of their attacks.
This situation has raised concerns in Kyiv regarding Elon Musk— the unpredictable leader of SpaceX, which owns the Starlink technology. Ukrainian military personnel openly criticize the entrepreneur for not taking sufficient measures to halt the illegal use of the technology, asserting that Musk appears to be sympathetic towards the Russian Federation.
According to Ukrainian soldiers, the Russians have now begun to mirror Ukraine's actions by using Starlink in a similar fashion.
Kyiv and Washington are facing challenges in addressing the issue of Russia's use of Starlink, analysts say, especially in light of Moscow's success in circumventing sanctions and the technical difficulties of denying access to the Starlink network without compromising Ukrainian forces.
Starlink terminals have appeared at Russian positions throughout the year, but only in recent months has their impact become truly significant. The Russians have begun using them to coordinate offensives. Ukrainian military personnel managing reconnaissance drones near Novogrodovka, southeast of the strategically important Pokrovsk, reported noticing Starlink at Russian positions last month.
Starlink can disable individual terminals based on their identification numbers and can also block signal reception areas—this is known as "geofencing." A source at Starlink claims that the company is technically capable of determining the locations of active terminals based on their satellite signals, but in practice, identifying a user on the front lines of a combat zone, where Ukrainian and Russian troops operate, can be quite challenging.