Ukrainian intelligence has published a report, according to which Russia uses the US Starlink internet system on the battlefields.
Erja Tuomaala,
Elsa Osipova
Ukrainian intelligence has published the reportaccording to which Russia would use the Starlink internet system on the battlefields.
Military calls intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence reveal that Russia installed Starlink to establish an internet connection for at least the Russian 83rd Assault Brigade.
Ukrainian intelligence released a sound clip of the alleged call interception on the Telegram messaging service.
Russia’s 83rd Assault Brigade operates in the Donetsk region near Klishchijivkia and Andrijivka.
Starlink is a satellite internet system developed by the American company SpaceX.
There is a billionaire behind Starlink Elon Musk.
Musk offered Ukraine the services of the Starlink system, which enables internet connection, when Russia started its war of aggression against Ukraine.
However, Musk reportedly changed his mind when Ukraine successfully repelled the Russian attack and decided to launch a counterattack.
Musk has said that Starlink is not intended to be used in wars.
Musk shut down Starlink in Crimea
The actions of the American billionaire have caused confusion in the Russian war of aggression before. Among other things The British broadcasting company BBC writes Musk denied Kiev access to Starlink despite Ukrainian appeals last fall.
At that time, the Ukrainians would have applied for a Starlink connection to the Russian Black Sea port of Sevastopol. However, Starlink was not allowed to prevent a strike on Russian ships. According to Ukraine, the outage enabled Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets.
Elon Musk has defended himself against allegations of bias by saying that he does not want “the war to become more complicated”. The matter has been discussed in the biography written by Walter Isaacson.
Source: Reuters