2024-03-13 08:58:08
Two Democratic members of the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee recently wrote an open letter to SpaceX asking for an explanation of why the Russian military can use the Starlink network.
A number of false news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia.
This is categorically false.
To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2024
When the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022, because he was worried that Ukraine’s network infrastructure would be damaged by the Russian army and affect communications, Deputy Prime Minister and several ministers Fedorov asked Musk for help. Musk immediately activated Ukraine’s Starlink service and within a week Ship the first batch of Starlink routers to Ukraine.
Although the Starlink network played a major role in the Ukrainian army’s early resistance to the Russian army’s lightning tactics, as the battle situation became stalemate, the two sides are currently fighting in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson areas in eastern Ukraine. middle.
On February 11, the General Intelligence Service of Ukraine released an intercepted recording of Russian military communications, including a conversation between Russian military officers and soldiers discussing the use of the Starlink network. Ukraine used this SpaceX call to prevent the Russian military from continuing to use the Starlink network as soon as possible.
However, following the news regarding Ukraine was released, Musk issued a denial on X, saying that SpaceX has never traded with Russia so far, and no Starlink equipment has been found to have flowed into Russia indirectly.
Representatives Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, members of the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee, recently issued an open letter to SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell.
The two representatives said that based on Ukrainian intelligence, the Russian military’s extensive use of Starlink equipment has exceeded the level that can be explained by simple battlefield seizures. They said that SpaceX has serious problems with the export of Starlink equipment and has violated the U.S. federal government’s export ban on Russian technology products.
Musk and SpaceX responded that the Russian Starlink satellite service has not been activated, and no equipment has been detected flowing into Russia.
However, both members of the House of Representatives and Ukrainian intelligence units pointed out that although the eastern Ukraine region has been within the scope of Starlink network services since the war, SpaceX and Musk have clarified several times that they only stated that they did not deal with Russia and did not activate Starlink network services. It is unclear whether Starlink routers flowed into Russia from a third party.
The General Intelligence Service of Ukraine pointed out that intelligence showed that the Russian army obtained a large number of Starlink routers through neighboring countries and deployed them in the eastern Ukrainian theater, posing a great threat to the Ukrainian army. Regarding the Russian military’s illegal acquisition of Starlink routers from neighboring countries, members of the House of Representatives asked SpaceX to respond before the 20th.
(Source of first picture:Starlink）
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