- [Speaker] Separation confirmed.

- [Narrator] Elon Musk's low orbit satellite service

has been essential to Ukraine's operations

in the war against Russia.

Offering reliable internet amid cell tower

and power outages.

- Starlink today is the backbone of the

Ukrainian military communications.

- [Narrator] Now, Ukrainian officials claim

that Russia has been using 1000s

of Starlink terminals within Ukraine.

And has had access to the service in occupied territories

for quite some time.

But Starlink and Musk say that they don't sell to,

or work with Russia.

So how does Starlink operate,

and what can be done to stop Russia from using it?

Here's what we know.

- [Speaker] And lift off of Starlink 513.

Go Falcon. Go Starlink.

- [Narrator] This rocket

is taking starlink satellites to space,

where they will enter orbits near Earth.

Starlink consists of thousands of satellites

that power high speed internet connections

to terminals on the ground

that users can buy and set up on their own.

As Musk says...

- There's just two instructions

and they can be done in either order.

Point at sky, Plug in.

- [Narrator] Starlink sells these terminals

and service directly,

and through distributors and retailers

like Home Depot in the US.

SpaceX, which owns Starlink,

has been pushing to find users in remote areas

that aren't well served by traditional internet providers.

- Starlink was the easiest

and most available solution that met the need

to provide broadband in these areas

with no other options from the ground were available.

- [Narrator] Terminals can provide service

from a specific location or on the move,

like in a car or on a boat.

- One way to look at low earth orbit broadband

is to draw a comparison with your cell phone.

You can move around with that phone,

and you are connecting to different cell phone towers.

In some ways, systems like Starlink are the reverse of that,

where you are relatively stationary on Earth,

and the satellites which can orbit the earth in 90 minutes,

they are the ones that are moving.

- [Narrator] With around 5,400 satellites in orbit

all around the earth,

Starlink says it works almost anywhere in the world.

But that doesn't mean you can use the service

anywhere in the world.

It can't operate in countries where it isn't licensed.

- The ability of Starlink

to do what we could call geofencing,

which is limit service to certain geographical areas,

is really important to how Starlink operates

so that the systems are not offering service

where they're not supposed to be offering service.

- [Narrator] Starlink says it does not operate

or sell terminals in Russia.

And the Kremlin said in a statement

that Starlink is not authorized there.

(speaking in foreign language)

But, Ukraine says that Russia is acquiring terminals

through private firms that buy them through intermediaries,

and delivering them to Russia via neighboring countries.

Russian forces then operate them in occupied territories

in Ukraine, officials say.

- [Speaker] Liftoff.

- [Narrator] So what can Starlink do

to limit Russia's use of its service?

Starlink has said that it takes steps

to deactivate terminals if the company determines

that they are being used by unauthorized parties.

To keep track of its terminals,

Starlink collects different pieces of information.

It attains some user data during the authentication process,

and can track the location of the terminal.

According to the company's website,

terminals sold through authorized sellers

also have a unique ID in order to activate a connection.

But even with that,

pinpointing information about specific terminals

in an area that's using a lot of terminals

can be a challenge.

Last year, the Ukrainian government said

that there are about 42,000 terminals

operating in the country.

- Just knowing a terminal is in a specific location

as opposed to across the street from that,

would still make it very challenging

for Starlink to say, "These are being used by Ukrainians,

and then these are being used by Russian forces."

- [Narrator] If Starlink is able to pinpoint users

it does not want on its network,

it could have some options for blocking them out

Swope says.

- One thought on a scenario would be

to look at how cybersecurity

and information technology professionals

tackle a same issue,

and that process is called an allow list.

So instead of trying to isolate

who you don't want on your network,

you identify who you do want on your network,

and then only those on the allow list

in that geographical area can use the Starlink service.

- But, there are still a lot of unknowns.

It isn't clear how SpaceX decides where in Ukraine

to provide Starlink service and where to cut it off.

The company has a contract with the Pentagon

to provide service in the country,

but officials haven't disclosed

whether military planners instruct SpaceX

about where they should target service.

(speaking in foreign language)