While Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to crack down on foreign–largely U.S.–companies, like Google [GOOGL], Meta Platforms [FB], Apple [AAPL], Twitter [TWTR], and TikTok, to prevent Russians from getting an accurate appraisal of the dictator’s invasion of Ukraine, the old adage that the “first casualty of war is the truth” may not apply to the Ukrainian conflict.
Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine and Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, has said that Meta is “stepping up to shut down Russian lies” on its site through “blocking Russian propagandists and media outlets.” Fedorov asked for YouTube “to do the same” by blocking the Russia-24 channel worldwide. The Russian government owns Russia-24. Twitter, for its part, has stopped new registrations in Russia, per Fedorov.
Fedorov also asked Google “to deplatform Russian state media in the strongest possible terms.”
Last week, Fedorov asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to provide Starlink terminals to allow Ukrainians to access information about the invasion without Russian interference, and Musk provided the first terminals on Feb. 26.
“In 2022 modern technologies are one of the best response to tanks, rockets and missiles,” Fedorov wrote on Twitter last week. “I’ve addressed to the biggest tech giants to support the sanctions for Russian Federation.”
Something like Starlink may also help Russians get a non-propaganda look at what’s happening in Ukraine.
“Russia is disabling Ukraine’s telecommunications infrastructure using cyber and kinetic attacks, sabotage, and by crippling other critical infrastructure such as power,” Rose Croshier, a policy fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Global Development (CGD) and a former U.S. Air Force analyst, wrote in a March 1 analysis. “This has resulted in a significant drop in internet access in Ukraine.”
“Traditional telecommunications infrastructure has obviously been on Russia’s target list from the start, but new technology, such as “non-geostationary” (NGSO) communications satellites and brief-case-sized, low power, portable receivers (aka terminals), represent a new challenge for Russia,” Croshier wrote. “In January, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, acknowledged that SpaceX’s new constellation, Starlink, could send content to the people of Russia, and ‘Russia couldn’t protect its internet against it.'”
While Russia has banned Starlink terminals in Russia and promised that a Russian constellation called “Sfera” would fill this niche, Croshier wrote in an email that “maybe someday non-attributable terminals (like ‘burner phones’) and ‘pirate’ internet service providers” could provide Russians accurate information, but she wrote that the latter options are unavailable now, “as far as I’m aware.”
“I’m watching to see if Ukrainian users (presumably military and government) will report on how well their new Starlink terminals are working,” she wrote in the email. “If it works according to plan, then each terminal would function as an independent connection to the global internet. Signals would be transmitted/received by a user’s terminal (nicknamed ‘Dishy McFlatface’), and the signal relayed via Starlink satellite(s) to the nearest internet gateway. It wouldn’t be reliant on Ukraine’s existing telecommunications infrastructure.”
Croshier wrote in her CGD analysis that the logistics of shipping “brief-case-sized Starlink terminals into Ukraine, making sure Starlink satellites can relay signals to the nearest ‘Gateway’ (Earth station with access to the internet), and Ukraine providing lightning-speed ‘wartime’ authorization for a new international internet service provider (ISP), will make for an interesting story in the days and weeks to come.”
Fedorov raised one such logistical issue on Twitter on March 2. “Starlink keeps our cities connected and emergency services saving lives!” he wrote. “With Russian attacks on our infra [infrastructure], we need generators to keep Starlink & life-saving services online – ideas?”
In addition, Croshier suggested that Ukraine’s government needs to be a key player.
“Signals can be likely be detected and potentially targeted by enemy forces,” she wrote. “Is SpaceX warning its new users to not place terminals on top of shelters, schools, and hospitals? How vulnerable is the signal to spying; is it encrypted? In this case terminals were delivered into Ukrainian government hands, so presumably they are taking appropriate precautions.”
Among the items provided by the Pentagon to Ukraine under a $650 million military aid package last year were secure communications and support for satellite imagery (Defense Daily, March 1).
Payam Banazadeh, the CEO of San Francisco-based Capella Space, said on March 2 that his company has been working with the U.S. and Ukrainian governments to provide real-time imagery in support of Ukraine. Banazadeh said on Feb. 28 that his team “has been working around the clock to provide real time transparency into the invasion of Ukraine.”
“I don’t take this lightly but unfortunately with this unstable geopolitical situation there will be more crisis in the future and Capella was built to be our eyes in the sky to fight fake news and manipulation,” he wrote on his LinkedIn page. “We are here to watch and report, day or night and in all weather.”