On Monday, the Kremlin rejected Ukraine’s claims that Russian troops fighting on the front lines were using Starlink terminals.
Kyiv’s military intelligence service claimed to have evidence that Starlink internet terminals were “systematically” used by Russian troops and accused Moscow of “smuggling.” In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Monday:
It cannot be officially supplied here and is not officially supplied here. Accordingly, it cannot be officially used here in any way.
Starlink, owned by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, is a network of satellites operating in low-Earth orbit that can provide Internet access to hard-to-reach places. However, the system is inactive in Russia, which means that even a device inside Russia will not be able to connect.
Yet Kyiv still accused Russian troops of using Starlink on the front line in Ukraine, with Ukrainian intelligence service spokesman Andriy Yusov claiming:
“Starlink is freely available in Russia. Compared to last year, now the use of Starlink in the Russian army on the front line has become more systematic.”
Elon Musk called reports of SpaceX selling Starlink terminals to Russia “categorically false,” on his X social media platform:
To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.
However, Yusov claimed Russia bought them via “parallel imports, which is essentially smuggling.”
Last year, the owner of Tesla and Space X rejected a request to activate Starlink in the Crimean city of Sevastopol to support Ukraine’s attack on the Russian Navy. The billionaire argued that it would have drawn the company “into a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
