<\/p>\n
Ukraine, reliant on satellite communications from Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink in a war that\u2019s decimated the country\u2019s telecommunications infrastructure, is finding that there\u2019s no easy way out.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As relations with President Donald Trump\u2019s administration deteriorate, the country has accelerated processes to find other options should Musk pull the plug. Ukraine is considering moving to European satellite providers, and setting up a mesh of antennas, modems and cables on the ground, officials and military personnel told Bloomberg. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But the alternatives have drawbacks, and the country can\u2019t afford a delay if it loses access, they said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
French satellite company Eutelsat Communications SA, which operates the second-largest low-earth orbit satellite service after Starlink, has put itself forward as the most viable alternative. Investors agreed, sending the company\u2019s share price up almost sixfold in the week following Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s public argument at the White House.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Still, Chief Executive Officer Eva Berneke said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday that her company needs \u201ca couple of months\u201d and financial help to provide 40,000 terminals to Ukraine to replace Starlink in the country. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While Musk hasn\u2019t said he\u2019ll withdraw Starlink access, Ukraine has been steadily losing ground to Russian forces and doesn\u2019t have the luxury of slowly rolling out an alternative service. The US has also halted military assistance and restricted intelligence sharing with Kyiv as the Trump administration seeks to pressure Ukraine\u2019s leaders to the negotiating table.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Digital Transformation, which oversaw the effort to integrate Starlink in the country, declined to comment about the service. A representative for Musk\u2019s SpaceX didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Eutelsat is also about 10-times smaller than its rival, and the French company\u2019s more than 600 LEO satellites also sit at a higher altitude than Starlink\u2019s 7,000.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe constellation will have a lower capacity, limiting the actions Ukraine can undertake,\u201d said CCS Insight analyst Joe Gardiner, who warned that dislodging Starlink won\u2019t be as simple as swapping out terminals. Other issues range from Eutelsat\u2019s OneWeb terminals being less mobile than Starlink\u2019s, to lower-quality equipment and a lack of interoperability with Starlink, he added.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The army utilizes Starlink to operate drones, conduct aerial reconnaissance, guide artillery and maintain connections between units. The service is also used in hospitals and schools near the front, where communication infrastructure has been largely incapacitated. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Troops in Russia\u2019s Kursk region, where Ukraine has seized land, are operating without Starlink access and the military is looking to learn from that experience, Mustafa Nayyem, Ukraine\u2019s former deputy infrastructure minister, said. \u201cOf course this would be a big loss for us,\u201d he said about a potential cutoff.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Losing Starlink would be \u201cvery painful, but not catastrophic,\u201d military and radio technology blogger Serhiy Beskrestnov said. There are several alternative communications channels available, but they are more expensive and slower, he said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Communications are much more cumbersome without Starlink, according to Ivan, an artillery soldier deployed near the front by Pokrovsk, who can only be identified by his first name due to military policy. Without it, soldiers have to use jerry-rigged walkie-talkies with upgraded antennas to avoid surveillance by Russians, he said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWithout Starlink it\u2019s going to be bad,\u201d Ivan said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Even before the Trump-Zelenskiy blowup, Ukraine had been exploring alternatives. There\u2019s a growing consensus in Europe that the continent needs to ween itself from a decades-long dependence on the US for security. The EU and its member states are rushing to mobilize trillions of euros in additional defense funds to develop sovereign capabilities and compensate for Trump\u2019s dramatic pullback from America\u2019s commitments.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The European Commission is holding discussions with member states and the industry, and \u201cwe understand that dependency is not the best way for us to have our own security,\u201d commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Germany and Britain are spearheading efforts among European allies to compensate for frozen US military support which could include satellite communication to replace services so far provided by Starlink, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters in Berlin on Thursday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe could provide further assistance by supplying everything from artillery ammunition to Starlink command and control communication,\u201d Pistorius said in a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart in Berlin. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Italian government is having growing doubts about closing a deal with Starlink to provide secure satellite communications services given the changing geopolitical landscape and is also talking to Eutelsat, Bloomberg reported this week.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Ukrainian military has relied on SpaceX\u2019s Starlink systems since the early months of the war. The terminals were initially donated by Musk, although now they are largely financed by Europe. Last month, Musk denied reports that the US had threatened to shut off Starlink. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Musk curtailed Starlink access in 2022 to prevent Ukraine from using it for an attack on Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet, fearing it could trigger an escalation in the conflict. That year, he also threatened to cut Starlink funding after Ukrainian officials criticized him for suggesting the government cede territory in exchange a peace deal with Russia. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Olesia Safronova, Michael Nienaber, Andrea Palasciano and Gian Volpicelli. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Catch all the Technology<\/a> News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App<\/a> to get Daily Market Updates<\/a> & Live Business News<\/a>.<\/p>\n More<\/span>Less<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ukraine, reliant on satellite communications from Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink in a war that\u2019s decimated the country\u2019s telecommunications infrastructure, is finding that there\u2019s no easy way out.\u00a0 As relations with President Donald Trump\u2019s administration deteriorate, the country has accelerated processes to find other options should Musk pull the plug. Ukraine is considering moving to European satellite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[188,183,185,186,210,31699,187,184,12971,189,2356,150,182,190,1060],"class_list":["post-379519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-blockchain-tech","tag-blockchain-technology","tag-crypto-technology","tag-cryptocurrency-technology","tag-elon-musk","tag-eutelsat","tag-metaverse-technology","tag-nft-technology","tag-satellite-communications","tag-soul-bound-token","tag-starlink","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-token-technology","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379522,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379519\/revisions\/379522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}