00:00Is Elon Musk alluring Russia to use Starlink?
00:06On 27 Januari, the Polish deputy prime minister called on Elon Musk
00:11to stop Russian forces from using Starlink to target Ukrainian cities,
00:16accusing him of making money from war crimes.
00:19It followed a post by Seriye Beskrensnov, a Ukrainian defense advisor,
00:23showing what he said was a Russian drone controlled via Starlink.
00:26The Institute for the Study of War confirmed that Russian forces were increasingly using Starlink satellite systems
00:32to extend the range of BM-35 strike drones.
00:36Starlink is a satellite internet network operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX
00:40that has been widely used in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion.
00:44It's used by the military to communicate and operate drones.
00:48It's also used by the government, civilians and hospitals.
00:51There have been reports of Russia using Starlink in the past.
00:54In 2024, Ukrainian units reported outages in their Starlink connections,
00:59sparking similar warnings.
01:01But there is no evidence to suggest that Starlink has any contracts or ties with Russia.
01:06So it's not that Elon Musk has been selling them directly,
01:10but they've been able to get hold of them through either secondary turn markets or through capture.
01:15They could have got them through other allies supplying them from other places,
01:20whether that's coming from different places like UAE as one of those places,
01:26or Turkey or wherever else they'd be able to get them.
01:31Ukraine says it asked SpaceX to block Russian forces from using Starlink.
01:36Elon Musk later said on X that SpaceX had taken steps to stop what he called unauthorized use,
01:42adding that the measures appear to be effective.
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