Russian military accused of blackmailing POW families into registering Starlink terminals

The Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War alleged on Tuesday that Russian military personnel have been blackmailing the families of Ukrainian POWs into illegally registering Starlink terminals on Ukrainian territory under their names to allow the Russian military to continue to use them.

In a post on Telegram, the government agency said that it was aware of instances in which the Russian military had used threats and blackmail to force relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war to register Starlink terminals, which provide satellite internet access crucial for both Russian drone strikes and manned operations behind Ukrainian lines, under their names.

The post said that, in collaboration with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace and artificial intelligence company that owns and operates the Starlink satellite network, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry had succeeded in disabling illegally registered terminals on Ukrainian territory.

While lambasting the Russian military for exploiting “the vulnerability of families”, the agency also stressed that Ukrainian citizens who registered Starlink terminals for the Russians could easily be identified and would be held criminally liable for assisting Russian forces.

It also encouraged Ukrainian citizens who had been contacted by the enemy to report the interaction to law enforcement agencies. The post corroborated reports by Russian pro-war bloggers who have been reporting that the Russian military is able to bypass Starlink’s blockages by using third parties in Ukraine. 

Many Starlink terminals reportedly went offline last week after the Ukrainian government, in a crackdown to combat the use of illegal Russian terminals, submitted a white list of verified terminals operating on its territory to SpaceX, which then deactivated all other terminals.