Moscow says SpaceX’s web service ‘cannot be officially used here in any way’.
Elon Musk has denied promoting his Starlink web service to Russia after Ukraine claimed the terminals had been being utilized by Russian troops on the entrance traces of the conflict.
“A number of false news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia. This is categorically false,” Musk, who leads SpaceX and several other different corporations together with Tesla, stated within the publish on X on Monday.
“To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.”
Moscow additionally rejected Kyiv’s declare that Starlink terminals had been smuggled into Russia and had been getting used on a “systematic” foundation in Russian-occupied Donetsk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Starlink is just not licensed to be used in Russia.
“It cannot be officially supplied here and is not officially supplied here,” Peskov informed reporters on Monday.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s army intelligence company GUR stated that intercepted conversations amongst Russian forces revealed that Starlink terminals had been deployed amongst troops working close to the cities of Klishchiivka and Andriivka.
GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov stated on state TV that Starlink terminals had been getting into Russia by parallel importing, not official channels.
Starlink stated in a publish on X final week that it “does not do business of any kind with the Russian Government or its military” and the service “will not work” within the nation.
Ukraine’s army has credited Starlink for permitting its forces to speak, collect intelligence and coordinate assaults extra shortly and securely than can be doable utilizing radio or cellphone communications.
Final yr, Musk got here underneath scrutiny after it emerged that he had refused a request by Ukraine to activate Starlink to help in a shock assault on Russia’s fleet in Crimea’s port of Sevastopol.
Musk stated he had refused the request, which was first reported in extracts of Walter Isaacson’s biography concerning the billionaire as a result of it might have made him “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation”.