> US law prohibits Russia from using Starlink. The problem is, how to stop Russia from doing so? A simple location-based ban won't work, because the front line is constantly shifting. Whitelisting only Ukraine's own dishes to work within Ukrainian territory might work, but 1) what about dishes that get captured by Russia? 2) As noted, what about all the privately paid-for dishes?
It might be more beneficial to silently spy on Russian terminals once they are found, rather than block them. In fact I wonder how much of that has been going on.
It seems more likely that Russia would just be using the hardware to communicate with their own systems, probably not Starlink's actual network. For a kamikaze drone, if you don't have to pay for the antenna, great, money saved. Two years ago there was a Black Hat talk on hacking the equipment, full compromise, is it inconceivable that Russia could find more vulnerabilities? They have their own satellites, too, it's not like they need to use Starlink unlike Ukraine.
It might be more beneficial to silently spy on Russian terminals once they are found, rather than block them. In fact I wonder how much of that has been going on.