US space technology maker SpaceX has begun blocking Starlink satellite internet to Ukrainian users. This writes “Strana.ua”.
Internet is blocked for ordinary users, contractors, volunteers and military personnel (mainly those who have received equipment from volunteers).
Users are advised that their accounts are invalid and cannot be funded. The carrier’s technical support department reports that “problem” terminals are turned off due to signs of “tampering”.
Volodymyr Stepanets, the founder of the People’s Starlink group, said Ukraine had become a big “black market” for the sale of dubious Starlink terminals.
According to experts, the country was at the center of a fraudulent international scheme. Middlemen buy promotional Starlink material, resell it to Ukraine at full price, then refuse it. Consequently, the operator ceases to serve these terminals. Additionally, there are a growing number of cases where stolen Starlinks are being sold to Ukraine.
Starlink terminals can be officially ordered in Ukraine via the Space X website. But many continue to order them abroad to save up to 30% of the cost. Fraudsters have built a scheme on this.
“Starlink can be stolen, bought for a one-euro promotion (with no actual payment later), or listed for return, and the accompanying router is resold to Ukraine. Then the person who bought it installs such a router for himself and the account is blocked, because the operator sees that the router is “on the left”, engineer Oleg Kutkov said.
Experts estimate that tens of thousands of terminals are threatened with closure.
Previously, SpaceX restricted the Ukrainian military’s access to Starlink satellite communications to control drones. “We know the military uses it for communications, and that’s great, but we never intended for them to use it offensively,” company president Gwynne Shotwell said.
SpaceX provided about 24,000 Starlink stations to Ukraine after the start of the Russian military operation. In December 2022, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Fedorov announced that the company intended to provide an additional 10,000 terminals.
