Russia wages space war on Elon Musk – 'nuclear weapons solves the problem'

Elon Musk (Image: Getty)

Russian army appear to be using Starlink terminals

Russia should use nuclear weapons in space to destroy all Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, demands Vladimir Putin's most prominent TV propagandist. The call came after the SpaceX entrepreneur acted to block Kremlin forces using the satellite internet constellation without authorisation to attack Ukraine.

Putin's mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov said: "Let's tell the truth about what Starlink is.

"It is the militarisation of space, because everything that Musk has worked on, everything that we see now, is in the interests of a war against Russia."

Urging a strike in space on Starlink's orbiting satellites, he demanded: "I do not understand why, for example, Elon Musk's satellites are not a legitimate target for us?

"One detonation of nuclear weapons in space, as I understand it, solves this problem quite seriously."

Russian military expert Lt-Gen Evgeny Buzhinsky warned him that a nuclear explosion in space would also destroy Russia's own satellites.

"Unfortunately a nuclear explosion in space is not selective, it affects our own as well," said Buzhinsky on a state-funded TV propaganda show.

Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk's SpaceX, launched in 2019 (Image: Getty)

Solovyov replied that Russia was anyway behind the West in satellite technology, so it didn't matter.

"Of course, there is no doubt about that. But, taking into account how much we are lagging behind…[so what?]."

He joked: "And we will, as usual, switch to carrier pigeons and other time-tested means of transmitting information, like shouting and tapping."

He urged a nuclear attack to stop Musk from deploying "even more massive [satellite] groupings".

Ukraine's military depends heavily on Starlink in the war but recently the Musk terminals have been detected on long-range drones used in Russian attacks.

Footage has also shown Russian troops attaching Starlink to a horse.

After an appeal by Kyiv, Musk said SpaceX had acted to shut down unauthorised Russian usage.

"Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorised use of Starlink by Russia have worked. Let us know if more needs to be done."

Ukraine's new defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that the country was working with Starlink and had "already taken the first steps that delivered rapid results in countering Russian drones.

"The next step is implementing a system that will allow only authorised terminals to operate on the territory of Ukraine."

This will include land occupied by Russia that is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory.

"Unverified terminals will be disabled," he said.

Starlink systems cannot be jammed by standard electronic warfare tools or detected in-flight by signals intelligence equipment.
But the action from the company to bar unauthorised use, with Ukrainians registering the tens of thousands of receivers visit to the war, should prevent deployment by Putin's forces. For the first time on 24 January, Russian drones equipped with Starlink were used to strike Ukrainian helicopters near the city of Kropyvnytskyi.