- Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters reported that Russian actors are coercing families of Ukrainian prisoners of war to register Starlink terminals for later military use.
- The pressure campaign followed Ukraine’s deactivation of illegally used Starlink terminals and has prompted warnings of criminal liability for citizens who comply.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POW) said Russia has begun coercing families of Ukrainian prisoners of war, demanding they register Starlink satellite internet terminals in their own names for later use by Russian forces.
The Coordination Headquarters stated that the pressure campaign followed the successful deactivation of illegally used Starlink terminals by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense in cooperation with engineers from SpaceX. According to the statement, Russian forces had been using those terminals for unit-to-unit communications and for controlling kamikaze drones that carried out strikes deep behind Ukrainian lines.
After the shutdown of the unauthorized terminals, the Coordination Headquarters said Russians began threatening and blackmailing relatives of captured Ukrainian service members. In several documented cases, families were reportedly forced to officially register Starlink terminals in their own names, with the equipment then intended for use against Ukraine.
“We emphasize that cooperation with the enemy is extremely dangerous,” the Coordination Headquarters said in its statement. “Official registration of an enemy terminal makes it easy to identify the person who carried this out, because personal identity must be verified during the registration process.”
The statement warned that Russia is deliberately exploiting the vulnerability of families whose relatives are in captivity. “The enemy uses the vulnerability of families. They do not care about the fate of Ukrainians: for them, it is a one-time resource,” the Coordination Headquarters said.
Ukrainian authorities stressed that registering a terminal later used for military purposes carries legal consequences. According to the statement, if a Starlink terminal is used to control drones that destroy infrastructure and take lives, the fact that the terminal was registered by a Ukrainian citizen constitutes grounds for criminal liability under Ukrainian law.
The Coordination Headquarters urged citizens who receive threats, demands to register Starlink equipment, or any other form of coercion by Russian actors to immediately contact the Coordination Headquarters and law enforcement agencies.
The warning follows earlier remarks by Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of defense on technology issues known by the call sign “Flash.” Beskrestnov previously said Russian forces were building a network to identify collaborators willing to register Starlink terminals in their own names through Ukrainian administrative service centers.
Starlink terminals have been widely used by Ukrainian forces since 2022 for secure communications, drone operations, and battlefield coordination. Ukrainian officials and open-source investigators have repeatedly reported attempts by Russian units to obtain and use the system through intermediaries and illicit channels, despite SpaceX stating that it does not provide service to Russia and actively works to prevent unauthorized use.