The Pentagon announced Russia’s attempts to disrupt the work of Starlink in Ukraine

Russia is attempting to suppress the operation of the Starlink satellite communications system in Ukraine. About it declared U.S. Space Force Commander General Chance Saltzman in an interview with The Washington Post (WP).

The military official noted that the United States is seeking to launch a large constellation of satellites into low Earth orbit for the needs of the American army. The number could rise to 1,000, he said. Saltzman added that the expansion of the satellite network would create “a much bigger targeting problem.”

“We are already seeing the consequences of this in Ukraine thanks to the Starlink system. Russia is trying to suppress [работу спутников]”, – said the general, emphasizing that these attempts were allegedly unsuccessful.

The founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, announced the start of Starlink’s work in Ukraine at the end of February 2022; Ukrainian officials had previously addressed him with a corresponding request. The network is designed to provide broadband Internet access, the orbital constellation of the system has more than 2300 satellites.

According to the Associated Press, at the end of 2022, since the beginning of the conflict, Kyiv has received about 24,000 Starlink terminals. In December 2022, Bloomberg, citing Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov, wrote that SpaceX and its head Elon Musk would send about 10,000 more Starlink terminals to Ukraine.

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian authorities have repeatedly said that civilian satellites are used in Ukraine for military purposes. In autumn 2022 at the Russian Foreign Ministry declaredthat if the satellites were used for military purposes, they could become “legitimate targets” of Russia. The White House warned Moscow about retaliatory actions and said that they would continue to use their funds in Ukraine.