It is possible that Russia is buying pre-activated dishes from Dubai.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for almost two years, and there is no sign of an end in sight. However, Russia now has a new weapon at its disposal. According to a number of reports, Russia has caught up to Ukraine, which may have the effect of nullifying one of the most significant advantages that Russia possesses. Invaders who are now engaged in combat in Ukraine have begun use the SpaceX Starlink service for communication purposes on the battlefield.
An early advantage for the defenders was the availability of Starlink in Ukraine, much to the dissatisfaction of Moscow. This put SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a few difficult situations, which helped the defenders gain an early advantage. Nevertheless, this one might be much more challenging.
In Russia, which is the target of several economic sanctions as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, Starlink is not publicly available to the public anywhere in the country. The sudden appearance of Starlink dishes among Russian battalions has reportedly been brought to the attention of Ukrainian soldiers, as reported by Newsweek. It is possible that the service does not function well within Russia; nonetheless, it is said to function perfectly in regions of Ukraine that are seized by Russia, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. SpaceX’s own overage map, which can be shown below, does not indicate any active operation in the zone that is being contested.
This information has been reported by Russian news organizations, who state that Starlink equipment is now available for purchase at a variety of outlets around the country. These systems are not actually intended for use in Russia; rather, they are being purchased by businesses in Dubai, who will subsequently activate them and resale them in Russia. According to Russian reports, the dishes are being supplied to the Russian volunteer units that are now operating in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
Even while Starlink is not now operational in Russia, it would still be a breach of US sanctions to permit Russian military to import the system now that it is known about. Despite the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that SpaceX was aware of Russia’s utilization of Starlink, this circumstance has the potential to become a significant source of stress for Musk and SpaceX. Due to the fact that Russian forces are operating in the same region as Ukrainian forces, the company is unable to simply cut off access in territory that is under enemy occupation. In order to prevent the resold terminals from being used, SpaceX could have to try to identify them.
The majority of SpaceX’s revenue comes from contracts with the United States government, and Starlink is now being developed into a secure communication system that will be used by the United States government agencies and the military. This means that the government has some say over how and where SpaceX can deliver services in accordance with arms treaties because the technology that SpaceX uses could be used to construct weapons. Musk is eager to boost his profile on Twitter, but deliberately breaking sanctions is likely to attract attention that is not what he wants. It was previously necessary for him to perform some damage control after the revelation made by author Walter Isaacson that Musk had disabled Starlink over Crimea in order to prevent a significant strike by the Ukrainian military. After some time had passed, Isaacson retracted his assertion, stating that Musk had, in fact, just declined to activate Starlink in preparation for the attack.