This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ukrainian soldiers say Russia’s military have begun using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications network in Ukraine, according to a journalist in the country.
“They began to deliver Starlink en masse, via Dubai, accounts are activated, they work in the occupied territories,” one of the soldiers with the X handle @Serhij wrote, referring to the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by Russia in the fall of 2022—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Musk’s SpaceX deployed its Starlink satellites to help provide Kyiv with internet service in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A source in the satellite communications market, familiar with the situation, told ComNews that Starlink systems are being delivered in bulk to Russia, and named Dubai as the location for the wholesale purchase of the equipment.
“Before being imported into Russia, terminals are registered under various foreign companies (Cyprus is often included), after which an account is activated under any name, often a fictitious one,” the source said.
Musk previously refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink internet services to launch an attack on Crimea to avoid complicity in a “major act of war.”
The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I wonder if he will shut them down to preserve lives.
I am waiting to find out he violated ITAR.
I mean, I’m not a Musk fan in the least, but the article does say that the receivers are being sold through an intermediary in Dubai, perhaps unbeknownst to Musk and SpaceX.
Because of how starlink works, they have to aim satellites specifically at areas for data to flow. They have the ability to turn regions on and off (ie, satellites over China).
They know exactly where the transceivers are and based on movement patterns, probably which side they are on.
Unless he is feeding that position data to the Ukrainian military, he knows exactly who is using them and letting it happen. He didnt sell them the dishes, but he lets them be used.
Are you saying there is no authentication whatsoever to use it and anyone with the receiver in Ukraine can just use it?
He is a traitor to humanity, he sells himself for money and power while shitting democracy, human rights, freedom. And yes, fuck Putin, Putin is the worst humanity has to offer, murder, lack of freedom,…
Yeah well by that logic the majority of the leaders of the world are traitors to humanity.
The United States.
Of course, you could also argue that Musk is a traitor to all rational creatures everywhere, and that his existence is an act of blasphemy against all that is good and moral in the world, but that’s a separate issue.
He’s not an elected official and AFAIK doing business with Russia would be a sanctions violation which does not equate treason.
He’s just doing what the system allows for rich assholes to do.
I don’t think Musk is the rogue element people think he is. I think he’s as integral a part of the US military-industrial complex as any other US tech billionaire, no different from say Peter Thiel or Eric Schmidt.
I presume that by them you mean the Russian state. This sounds like BlueAnonsense.
Have you considered that the NSA likely has full access to everything that happens on Starlink?
They do not. At best, they have the metadata which would let them ID the location of anyone using it, but that is a whole different thing to view the traffic.
The ability to communicate over vast distances is WAY too big of a boon to give to russia… Encryption and ciphers can be added ontop of the connection. Ever heard of a VPN…?
Russia cannot be given StarLink.