Ukraine says Russian troops are communicating via Starlink on the front lines.
Kyiv:
Russian troops in Ukraine are using thousands of Starlink satellite communications terminals made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Kyrilo Budanov said the Russian military has been communicating via Starlink for “quite some time” and purchased the terminals from private Russian companies, which were purchased from middlemen. .
He said middlemen shipped equipment to Russia through neighboring countries, including former Soviet republics.
Budanov’s agency told Reuters on Monday that Russian troops were communicating via Starlink on the front lines, but did not disclose the extent to which the terminals were being used.
Ukraine relies extensively on Starlink, saying last year that about 42,000 terminals are used by the military, hospitals, businesses and aid organizations, and the Pentagon helps fund the Ukrainian military’s use of the terminals.
The Russian Embassy and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Starlink says it does not conduct any business in or with Russia. The company did not respond to an email earlier this week asking whether it could definitively rule out the possibility of Russian forces using the system in Ukraine.
Retired British Army Brigadier General Ben Barry told Reuters that if Russian forces used Starlink, their communications would be more secure and harder for Ukraine and its allies to hack.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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