The CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla (TSLA) SpaceX chief Elon Musk has issued a warning regarding the future of Starlink satellite broadband service in Ukraine, given the current scenario of uncertainty in the country post the Russian invasion.
In his warning message on Twitter, Elon Musk wrote there is a high chance of the Starlink satellite internet service being targeted. It is worth noting that internet connectivity in Ukraine plummeted by 20% on 26 February, according to a report from Reuters.
"Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution," Musk tweeted.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX activated the Starlink internet service in Ukraine after the country’s minister of digital transformation and first Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, requested Musk to send Starlink stations because of the Russian invasion had crippled the country’s internet service considerably.
The terminals resembling home satellite dishes arrived in the country in less than 48 hours. Moreover, the technology is apparently working as advertised, and the Ukrainian government has thanked the Tesla CEO for his assistance.
However, multiple skeptics claimed that Musk was using the invasion of Ukraine as a publicity stunt. One Twitter user asked if the technology could really be under the threat of a Russian cyberattack. Musk clarified that it did already happen to all Viasat Ukraine user terminals on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Starlink antennas that resemble home satellite television dishes, are not designed to be used while in motion, and it was not clear what Musk meant by the tweet, Tim Farrar, a consultant in satellite communications, stated.
Musk's warning comes after John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab project, tweeted last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin controls the “air above” so that users’ uplink transmissions become viable targets for airstrikes.
Additionally, security researcher Nicholas Weaver from the University of California at Berkeley stated that every Ukrainian citizen using a Starlink device should consider Starlink a “potential giant target.” That’s because if Russia uses a specialized plane aloft, it can easily get detected and target the location, putting the user at high risk.
