No, they could not use it. I'm pretty sure the satellites turn off their transmitters and receivers when passing over unlicensed countries (if for no other reason than to save power).

They definitely turn off when passing over areas where there are radio telescopes, which was a bigger problem to astronomers than light reflections

that's just a software update though if Starlink so chooses to do so. they cost like $0.50 a piece, so if Putin wants to spend money effort to take a couple out to prove whatever point, then it costs them much much more than it does starlink. and at the rate they are getting launched, it won't be a very long lasting worthless accomplishment

They make a loss on the terminals.

I'm not worried about Starlink's bottom line. I'm just guessing that China would want Chinese hardware. Not sure what type of export restrictions this type of hardware would have applied to it related to these 2 countries.

I was just implying that I'm guessing getting actual Starlink hardware through legit channels is probably not something that will be available.

Um, encryption?

What's the end-to-end level of starlink vis-a-vis encryption? I have to imagine it's pretty good.

In Soviet Russia, encryption breaks you!

I'm sure the backdoor master key "everyone" is pushing for would find a practical use in this situation