Russia threatens to shoot down Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites that are helping Ukraine
The Russian Federation also names Maxar and Planet Labs devices as its 'legitimate targets'.
Commercial US satellites used during the war to help Ukraine could become “legitimate targets” for a Russian strike, said Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the non-proliferation and arms control department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Insider writes about it.
“It is about the involvement of the US and its allies in the civil infrastructure components in space, in particular commercial infrastructure, in armed conflicts. Such infrastructure may be a legitimate target for retaliation,” said a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
According to him, “these states obviously do not fully realize that such activities are essentially indirect participation in armed conflicts.”
Data from commercial American satellites help to understand the movement of Russian troops. Journalists use the images to investigate war crimes committed by Russian soldiers. Satellite images of Maxar regularly appear in the media.
After the war began, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet terminals began operating in Ukraine and became a vital source of communication for the Ukrainian military, allowing them to fight and stay connected even when cellular and internet networks were destroyed.
About 20,000 Starlink satellites were handed over to Ukraine. According to Elon Musk, all this cost his company SpaceX $80 million.
In October, SpaceX informed the Pentagon that it could no longer supply and maintain the Starlink terminals in Ukraine for free and asked the US government to cover these costs. However, after a public discussion of the issue, Musk said that the company would continue to provide communications for the Armed Forces.
In November 2021, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the testing of anti-satellite weapons. As a result, the defunct Russian spacecraft “Tselin-D”, which had been in orbit since the 1980s, was destroyed.
The USA then accused Russia of creating a danger to the ISS. State Department official Ned Price said at the time that the test produced 1,500 fragments of space debris.
