Starlink Terminals Sold in Russia Despite Musk's Denial

SpaceX's Starlink user terminals are being openly sold in Russia, though CEO Elon Musk has denied knowledge of any such sales in the country.

The terminals, which provide users with high-speed internet via the Starlink satellite constellation, are available on the Russian website of a reseller claiming to be an "official distributor" of leading Chinese drone maker DJI.

The revelation follows allegations Russian forces are deploying Starlink in their invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year. DJI says it forbids distributors from selling its products in instances of suspected combat end-use. In April 2022, the tech firm announced it was temporarily suspending business in both Russia and Ukraine pending "compliance assessments."

"We can confirm that this is not an official DJI website," a company representative told Newsweek on Thursday when asked about the Starlink sales.

"We were the first civilian drone company to clearly denounce and actively discourage use of our products in combat. We have followed this principle for our entire existence," the spokesperson said.

DJI said its legal team was looking into possible copyright infringement.

Representatives of the purported distributor, djirussia.ru, did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk has categorically denied Starlink sales are happening in Russia.

"A number of false news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia. This is categorically false. To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia." Must wrote in a February 12 post on X (formerly Twitter).

Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide internet coverage early in the war and later withheld the service during a Ukrainian surprise attack in Crimea, citing fear of a nuclear reprisal from Russia.

SpaceX, and the Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to Newsweek's written requests for comment.

As for its drones, DJI said in November 2022: "We take active steps to try to keep our drones from being modified for use as weapons." It added that it would terminate its relationships with partners who sell company products to customers intending DJI products for combat purposes.

Nevertheless, the unmanned aerial vehicles have found their way into the hands of both sides of the conflict, as tools of reconnaissance as well as attack.

"Both Ukrainians and Russians are continuing to chew through vast quantities of DJI drones on the battlefield, despite massive misgivings about their reliance on Chinese tech," Faine Greenwood, a senior spatial data scientist with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, wrote in her blog last July.

Greenwood maintains an extensive database of drone deployment in military settings, detailing drone use by militaries, including many incidents involving DJI UAVs.

The U.S. Department of Defense in 2022 added DJI to a blacklist of Chinese companies believed to have ties to China's People's Liberation Army. DJI vowed to challenge the move.

The previous year, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control named DJI among eight Chinese tech firms deemed to be complicit in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.

Both the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, have said China's treatment of Uyghurs amounts to genocide.

Update 2/29/2024, 10:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with a response from DJI and to clarify the company's relationship with the Russian reseller.