Moscow says SpaceX’s web service ‘can’t be formally used right here in any manner’.
Elon Musk has denied promoting his Starlink web service to Russia after Ukraine claimed the terminals had been being utilized by Russian troops on the entrance traces of the battle.
“A variety of false information experiences declare that SpaceX is promoting Starlink terminals to Russia. That is categorically false,” Musk, who leads SpaceX and a number of other different corporations together with Tesla, stated within the submit on X on Monday.
“To the very best of our information, no Starlinks have been bought immediately or not directly to Russia.”
Moscow additionally rejected Kyiv’s declare that Starlink terminals had been smuggled into Russia and had been getting used on a “systematic” foundation in Russian-occupied Donetsk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Starlink just isn’t licensed to be used in Russia.
“It can’t be formally provided right here and isn’t formally provided right here,” Peskov informed reporters on Monday.
GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov stated on state TV that Starlink terminals had been coming into Russia by parallel importing, not official channels.
Starlink stated in a submit on X final week that it “doesn’t do enterprise of any sort with the Russian Authorities or its army” and the service “won’t work” within the nation.
Ukraine’s army has credited Starlink for permitting its forces to speak, collect intelligence and coordinate assaults extra rapidly and securely than can be potential utilizing radio or telephone communications.
Final yr, Musk got here beneath scrutiny after it emerged that he had refused a request by Ukraine to activate Starlink to help in a shock assault on Russia’s fleet in Crimea’s port of Sevastopol.
Musk stated he had refused the request, which was first reported in extracts of Walter Isaacson’s biography in regards to the billionaire as a result of it might have made him “explicitly complicit in a significant act of battle and battle escalation”.
