Russian troops have begun to use the Starlink terminals of Elon Musk's SpaceX company at their positions, Militarnyy has reported.
According to Militarnyy, the Russians receive Starlinks through "parallel imports" or through volunteer resellers. Purchases are made through third countries, using fictitious persons.
Oleh Kutkov, a Kyiv-based engineer who works with Starlink terminals for Ukraine's military, said that there have also been many complaints about the stability of communication and speed on the front line.
"Indeed, the Russians have begun to actively use the terminals on the front line," the engineer says.
These terminals operate exclusively on the territory of Ukraine, but in the 20-kilometre zone on the front line, it is impossible to distinguish which side owns the terminal. The occupiers use this on the front line, so it is not clear where the terminal is located.
Kutkov adds that in these frontline areas, all terminals use the same channel under the same scheduler on the satellite side.
SpaceX, the developer of the Starlink terminals, said that the company does not have any business with the Russian Federation or its military, as well as with the UAE. At the same time, the company said that it would deactivate the terminals that were obtained without the appropriate license.
Earlier it was noted that SpaceX has marked some of the occupied settlements of Ukraine as having access to Starlink satellite Internet coverage. On the map on the Starlink website, Severodonetsk, Novoaydar, Starobilsk, Rubizhne and other settlements in Luhansk Region are marked as "waiting list".