Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX said on Saturday that the company’s Starlink internet services have been activated in Ukraine as the country suffers power and internet outages due to the Russian invasion.
“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,” Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, said in a tweet.
According to a Twitter exchange between Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Elon Musk, Mykhailo Fedorov requested Musk to provide internet service to the country amid Russian attacks, and Musk delivered.
Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, tweeted to Elon Musk that while Musk is trying to colonize Mars and his rockets are successfully landing from space, the Russians are trying to occupy Ukraine and are firing rockets on the Ukrainian civil population. He then asked Musk to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.
Starlink is a satellite-based internet constellation aimed to cover the entire globe with high-speed broadband service and can potentially deliver internet connectivity to billions of people who still lack reliable internet connection through broadband providers.
The Twitter exchange between the two took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered deterrence forces to be placed on high alert, which generally speaking are the Nuclear Weapons. Later on, the Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Evgeny Yenin informed that the talks between the Russian and the Ukrainian delegations will take place on Monday morning.
Previously, the Starlink system was put to use in Tonga, to provide internet services following the eruption of an underwater volcano in January, according to SpaceX. The eruption was likely the biggest recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years and had severed the undersea internet cables.
Starlink helps people to connect to the internet via a satellite dish that is placed on or near a person’s property. The internet is beamed down to the dish via a network of Starlink satellites that have been put into orbit by SpaceX and ground stations.
