Analysts of the Molfar OSINT agency, together with experts of the Cyber Warfare Research Institute, found out the details of the use of Starlink satellite terminals by the russians in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The official coverage map indicates that Starlink operates in the temporarily russian-occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Regions, as well as in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.
Online stores openly advertise the system. The site even has listings of people from the U.S. states of Ohio and New Jersey selling Starlink terminals on eBay. In addition, supplies to russia, as well as to other war zones, such as Sudan and Yemen, go through the UAE, countries in Central Asia and Africa, where middlemen buy them on the black market, the WSJ found.
In russian stores where Starlink is sold, they claim that the terminals will work even in the occupied Crimea, although there may be signal interruptions. In private conversations, russian Starlink sellers say that the terminal still does not work in the territory of the center of russia. However, there are videos on social networks, for example, from Volgograd, where the Starlink satellite signal works perfectly.
Molfar analysts found dozens of russian stores selling Starlink in the russian Federation. In particular, the Top Machines store directly indicates that "Starlink is available for SVO [special military operation]." According to the representative of the store, they have been engaged in sales for about 1.5 years, they provide an "eternal" guarantee for the equipment and the account if there are no flights to the terminal itself. He added that as of February 21, 2024, they had at least 80 Starlink terminals in stock.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Democrats in the House of Representatives initiated an investigation into Elon Musk's SpaceX company, checking whether the company implemented adequate safeguards to prevent russia from using the Starlink satellite internet service during the war against Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.
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