Volodymyr Zelensky announced that even more Starlink terminals, the satellite Internet service, could be activated in Ukraine. One of his ministers had asked Elon Musk to activate the service in certain Ukrainian areas cut off from the Internet.
“ I spoke to Elon Musk (…) Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink terminals for our destroyed cities. “, at tweeted Volodymyr Zelensky, March 6, 2022. The President of Ukraine thanked the billionaire, boss of SpaceX and Tesla, for continuing to act to help his country, which was invaded by Russia on February 24.
Since that date, Elon Musk had already reacted for the first time by announcing the activation in Ukraine of Starlink, his satellite Internet system, after being questioned by Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
” While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully escape the earth for space, Russian bombs target Ukrainian civilians! We ask you to give us access to Starlink terminals, and ask sane Russians to oppose [à la guerre] “, could we read in his tweet.
Two days later, Ukraine received its first satellite connection kits promised by Elon Musk. The objective is to be able to allow certain regions to reconnect to the web while many infrastructures have fallen, and cuts have been observed.
Starlink should be used with “caution”
Usually, the cost of these devices is not insignificant: it takes 500 euros per kit (with satellite dish, router, power supply), without considering the subscription at 99 dollars per month. It was not specified whether Elon Musk was actually donating these devices, or how many were sent, or in what manner. However, this van was obviously not the last, sinceVolodymyr Zelensky says he expects even more. Neither Elon Musk nor Starlink have responded to this statement this time around.
Thanks to this emergency internet connection, Ukrainians could manage to communicate with their loved ones, organize relief, but also circumvent a form of potential censorship. Elon Musk, however, warned the people of Ukraine to be careful with the use of Starlink, turning it on only when needed and camouflaging the antenna to prevent it from being too visible. This warning followed a long explanation of a researcher which showed how Russia could possibly successfully target civilians using these Starlink satellites.