Elon Musk activates Starlink in Ukraine to keep the internet up after the Russian invasion

Elon Musk announced that his Starlink satellite service is now active in Ukraine in response to a request from Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov. 

Musk wrote on Twitter “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.“

Recently Ukraine’s internet was severely disrupted as a result of Russia’s invasion. The Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project at Georgia Tech, which monitors the internet, reported significant outages throughout Ukraine beginning late February 23.

Mykhailo Fedorov asked for cooperation from SpaceX and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk in reaction to these and other cyberattacks. 

Starlink is SpaceX’s service that provides high-speed internet connectivity through a vast constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, with an emphasis on distant areas and underserved regions. It is designed to eventually provide coverage wherever on Earth and is regarded as significantly more reliable than traditional broadband.

Thousands of Starlink satellites will be launched into space by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Starlink will keep the country online.