SpaceX counters Russia’s ‘unauthorized’ use of Starlink to guide drones in Ukraine

Efforts to halt Russia’s use of the Starlink internet system to guide its drones for attacks on Ukraine have produced “real results,” Ukraine’s defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Sunday.

Fedorov said Ukraine worked with Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, which owns Starlink, to take initial steps to counter Russian drones.

He said the next step is “implementing a system that will allow only authorized terminals to operate on the territory of Ukraine.”

Fedorov continued, “In the coming days, we will share instructions for Ukrainian users to register their Starlink terminals for verification. Unverified terminals will be disabled.”

He added that the registration process would be “simple, fast and user-friendly.”

In a response to Fedorov, Musk said that “the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked.”

“Let us know if more needs to be done,” Musk wrote on X.

Fedorov similarly noted that the first steps are “already delivering real results.”

“Thank you for standing with us. You are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people,” Fedorov wrote to Musk.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has been reliant on Musk’s satellite-based internet service, which is used by the military to communicate and operate drones, by the government as well as many civilians, businesses and public institutions, including hospitals and schools.

Under US sanctions, Starlink cannot be sold or used in Russia. However, analysts and Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia has increasingly been finding ways to leverage the system to its own advantage, mounting terminals on its attack drones to strike deeper into Ukrainian territory.

Starlink-equipped drones have a longer range than radio and cable-guided drones and cannot be jammed. The superfast connection also makes it possible to control them in real-time from inside Russia, allowing them to be much more precise.

Ukraine has collected evidence of “hundreds” of attacks by Russian drones equipped with Starlink terminals, according to Serhii Beskrestnov, a military tech expert and adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

Beskrestnov has said it was also likely that a deadly strike on a civilian train in eastern Ukraine was conducted with a Shahed drone equipped with a mesh radio modem or possibly a Starlink.

Last week, Musk called Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski a “drooling imbecile” after the Polish leader questioned why Musk does not “stop the Russians from using Starlinks to target Ukrainian cities.”

Last March, while US-Ukraine relations coarsened as President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate, Musk described Starlink as “the backbone of the Ukrainian army.”

“Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off,” he said, before adding that “no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals.”

In 2024, Musk denied that Starlink systems were sold to Russia, adding that “to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.”

At the time, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence claimed that it had confirmed the use of Starlink satellite communications by Russian forces in occupied areas.

“If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed,” SpaceX said in a statement.

Over the weekend, Beskrestnov said that the efforts to curb Russia’s use of Starlink had temporarily impacted some Ukrainian users.

“I apologize to those who have been temporarily affected by the measures taken, but for the security of the country, these are very important and necessary actions at this time,” he wrote on Facebook.