US House Democrats are investigating SpaceX over whether Russia has accessed the company’s Starlink satellite internet service as part of its ongoing war against Ukraine, according to a letter sent to the company on Wednesday.
The letter, authored by the Democratic representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Robert Garcia of California, comes after Ukrainian officials claimed in February to have found evidence of Russian use of Starlink terminals for satellite internet, calling it a “systemic problem”.
Following the reports of misuse, SpaceX’s owner, Elon Musk, stated that the company had not sold any Starlink terminals to Russia directly. Raskin and Garcia stated in their letter that Russia’s alleged “misuse of Starlink terminals outside Russia’s internationally recognized borders poses a serious threat to Ukraine’s security, Ukrainian lives, and US national security”, and demanded the company report any complaints the satellites had been accessed.
“Russian procurement of, use of, or interference with Starlink terminals each has the potential to advance Russia’s brutal and illegitimate invasion of Ukraine,” said the letter, dated Wednesday. The Democratic lawmakers asked SpaceX to respond by 20 March.
The Kremlin has denied that its troops use Starlink, a subsidiary of the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment on the letter, which was first reported by the Washington Post.
Starlink entered a contract in 2023 to deploy more than 400 of its terminals to Ukraine, where they provide high-speed internet connections vital to Kyiv’s battlefield communications.
The US lawmakers’ inquiry comes as western countries scramble to help Ukraine with more arms and financing after Kyiv’s failed counteroffensive last summer and after Russian forces regained the initiative on the battlefield.
Ukraine is preparing for more counteroffensive actions, over two years after Russian troops invaded the neighboring former Soviet state.
Kyiv has pleaded for more aid, but a vital US assistance package has been stalled by Republicans in Congress at the behest of former president Donald Trump, who is making a third bid for the White House and has praised the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
President Joe Biden plans to renew his request for a $95bn aid package for weapons for Ukraine in his State of the Union address on Thursday night.