Starlink 'catastrophe' for Russia as forces lose access across front line in Ukraine
(kyivindependent.com)
Because they used middlemen in Iraq and the other middle eastern countries to get the terminals. It's incredibly likely that this has been in the works for a little while now. You don't wanna accidentally cut off access to Ukraine while clearing out the bootleg clients from Russia.
"There is no formal accusation that SpaceX is doing business with Russia directly - only that it might be failing to properly police redirection of its equipment to sanctioned entities like the Russian government."
https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/08/is_russia_using_starlink_in/