Right. The individual base stations always have had a service region. It’s why I can’t use starlink over international waters and the same thing happens from a fishing boat or anything. There’s no purposeful deactivations. Just boundaries of service already established.
It’s literally part of the service when you sign up.
You’re right that technically he could provide coverage anywhere in the world. There’s lots of reasons he doesn’t. But that’s always been part of the service.
18 UNcountries recognize it as Russian territory. Some of them large superpowers or economic hubs. Including one that’s expected to launch starlink soon. (Though all generally shitty countries.)
But aside from that. The rules for supplying things to Ukraine were spelled out very clearly. It’s why none of the Western supplies hsve been used in Russian territory attacks. Doing so Russia claimed it would retaliate.
The articles are claiming that he intentionally turned it off when it was originally on and that’s not the case. It was never active there.