SpaceX founder and CEOElon Musk announced Saturday that the company’s Starlink internet satellites are now active in Ukraine, as the country suffers power outages from the Russian invasion.
“Starlink service is already active in Ukraine,” tweeted Musk, also the CEO of Tesla. “More terminals on the way.”
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister asked Musk to provide internet service to the country amid Russian attacks, and Musk complied, according to a Twitter exchange between the two on Saturday.
Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, tweeted to Musk: “While you are trying to colonize Mars… Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets are successfully landing from space, Russian rockets are attacking Ukrainian civilians.” We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and turn to sensible Russians to keep up.”
Starlink is a constellation of internet satellites that aims to blanket the planet with high-speed broadband and could bring connectivity to billions of people who still lack reliable internet access.