According to a report from Ukrainian website Defense Express, Russian drones are now actively using Starlink hardware for “unlimited” communication over Ukraine’s territory. This past week, Kyiv’s defense forces shot down 28 drones sent as part of Russia’s attack on the Kharkiv region, and some Starlink-branded equipment was seen among the wreckage for the first time.
It’s very difficult for Starlink to stop this from happening while still allowing the capability for Ukraine to do it. If Russia obtains SL systems through intermediaries and then uses them over Ukrainian territory there’s realistically no way for SL to know whether it’s Russia or Ukraine using the service.
Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about but wouldn’t starlink know the serial numbers or Mac addresses of the dishes they gave to Ukraine? Couldn’t they easily filter that region so only those work?
They probably can do that, but a lot of the connections Ukraine are using will have been donated by third parties, rather than directly purchased by the Ukrainians. How do they tell the difference between those, and someone claiming to be doing that then shipping the dishes to Russia?
