UKRAINE, Feb. 10 — Russians force families of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) to register Starlinks under their names to include their terminals on “whitelist” and avoid blocking, said the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

On Feb. 2, Myhailo Fedorov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, introduced a “whitelist” of verified and registered Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military and businesses. After that, SpaceX began blocking all unregistered terminals, including those used by Russians.

The decision was made to prevent Russian forces from using Starlink for drones, which made them difficult to shoot down because of their low flight height, resistance to electronic warfare, and real-time control over long distances.

The Headquarters recorded cases of threats and demands from Russians to the families of Ukrainian POWs. They force Ukrainians to register Starlinks to unblock and use them against Ukraine again.

The Headquarters noted that official registration of the Starlink terminal will make it easy to identify the person who registered it.

If the terminal is used to control Russian drones that destroy infrastructure and take the lives of Ukrainian people, the fact that a Ukrainian citizen registered the terminal is a basis for criminal prosecution, they said.

“Russians exploit the vulnerability of families (of POWs). They do not care about the fate of Ukrainians. It is a disposable resource for them,” said the Headquarters’ statement.

Earlier, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for a military group responsible for the Kharkiv oblast, told Gwara Media that Russians have communication problems because of the blocking of Starlink terminals.

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