Elon Musk Says Starlink Satellite Internet is Now Active Over Ukraine After Plea from Vice Prime Minister

Brendan Smialowski/AFP, via Getty

Technology billionaire Elon Musk announced on Saturday that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are now “active” over Ukraine, and more terminals are on the way, following a request made publicly by the country’s Vice Prime Minister.

The Starlink satellites have been put in orbit by SpaceX over the last several years, with over 2,000 in operation and as many as 12,000 more to come. It provides broadband internet by satellite that has speeds almost comparable to wired broadband already.

Russia’s invasion has knocked services offline across Ukraine, and cyber attacks on internet providers are widespread. Knocking the population out of internet service is part of both the propaganda and the isolation strategies.

Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Minister of Digital Transformation for Ukraine, appealed to Musk to enable the broadband satellite service for Ukraine in a tweet. He was echoed by the official national Twitter account.

It took over 11 hours, but Musk was able to notify the world via a tweeted reply that the system had been activated.

The terminals that are on the way are essentially a kit that allows users to access or “hook up” to the high speed internet. As one Twitter user put it:

Shortly after Musk announced the service being activated, Fedorov tweeted his gratitude at Musk’s efforts to stop that aspect of Putin’s systematic attack on civilians, business, and the military and government of Ukraine.

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