“Yes, there have been recorded cases of the use of these devices by the Russian occupiers. This is starting to become systematic,” Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, told Ukrainian website RBC-Ukraine.
Musk’s satellite service, which uses thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbits to beam internet services, has been praised as an important tool in Ukraine’s ability to fight back against Russian forces.
Relations between Musk and Ukrainian authorities have cooled throughout the war, starting with Musk’s 2022 order to his engineers to disable Starlink satellite communications near the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, allegedly to sabotage a planned Ukrainian drone strike.
Musk reportedly feared that the attack would escalate tensions and potentially lead to a nuclear war.