While the Ukrainian army has been able to recapture Russian-held territory in southern and eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, the soldiers appear to be having serious problems with the broadband satellite network Starlink had. According to the Financial Times The connection to Starlink was lost in some regions when the Ukrainians operated in the frontline and wanted to advance into Russian-controlled territory. Some of the outages resulted in a “catastrophic” loss of communications, the FT quoted a Ukrainian government official as saying. The southern regions of Cherson and Zaporizhia were affected, but also the front line in the east of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk.
The US company Space-X sent several thousand terminals for the Starlink system to Ukraine in the spring after the start of the war, donated by Space-X but also financed by the US government and private organizations. The terminals should provide the Ukrainians with a broadband network that is as secure as possible and provide them with high-speed Internet nationwide. They can use it to communicate, control drones and get an overview of the situation via satellite images.
The Starlink failures have in turn led to speculation that Space X boss Elon Musk temporarily switched off satellite access because he wanted to prevent Russian soldiers from being able to access it during crucial phases of the war. Space-X and the Ukrainian troops should therefore coordinate better, the coordinator of the Prytula Foundation said according to FT information. The foundation, which it says is private, is based in Poland and supports the Ukrainian army. “What happens on the battlefield is secret,” Musk tweeted about the Starlink mission in Ukraine.
On the other hand, he caused outrage a week ago because he expressed the opinion of his followers on Twitter new referendum interrogated under UN supervision in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. While President Volodymyr Zelensky then tweeted about it decide by vote Whether one prefers an Elon Musk who supports Ukraine or one who is on the side of Russia, the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk, who will be in office for another week, reacted a little more undiplomatically. “The only result is that now no Ukrainian will buy your fucking Tesla crap. So good luck to you”, tweeted he outraged and then put it down again: “Fuck off is my very diplomatic answer to you.”
Musk: “Obviously we’re pro-Ukraine”
Musk rejected any partisanship with Russia and also the accusation of making money with the Ukraine war to earn, the latter only applies to a small part of the terminals: Space-X will pay more than 100 million dollars out of its own pocket for the donated Starlink system by the end of the year. “Our support for Russia is zero dollars. Obviously, we are for Ukraine,” he tweeted and also justified his proposal for a new referendum in the annexed areas of Ukraine. “Trying to retake Crimea will result in massive deaths, likely to fail, and risk nuclear war. That would be terrible for Ukraine and for the planet.” He is a big fan of Ukraine, but doesn’t want one third world war.
The fact that Elon Musk, a billionaire worldwide, can currently decide whether a remote area is supplied with fast Internet or not, is increasingly being criticized. EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton therefore wants an independent European broadband satellite network for security authorities, companies and citizens, the concept of which is currently being developed.
Sooner or later, Space-X will have other competitors: The British-Indian company Oneweb has already launched around 400 satellites to build a broadband network for Internet from space, Amazon is planning a similar constellation under the name Kuiper. But Space-X’s Starlink system isn’t finished yet either. Although the Californians already have around 3,450 satellites in orbit, at least 12,000 are initially planned.