Elon Musk moves Starlink satellites over Ukraine as country's leaders beg for help

dailystar.co.uk:

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk who has moved his fleet of Starlink satellites to the country. Starlink is Elon Musk's satellite-internet branch of SpaceX which uses around 2,000 satellites to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world, with the company referring to its dishes as terminals.The tech genius made the decision to intervene following a request for help from the country's deputy prime minister.

Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted the Tesla and SpaceX founder, saying: "Elon Musk, while you try to colonise Mars - Russia tries to occupy Ukraine! "While your rockets successfully land from space - Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people!

We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand." The eccentric business magnate replied hours later to say the Starlink service was online in Ukraine and more of its dishes are "en route".

Ukraine’s internet service has been disrupted during Russia's invasion with connectivity to Ukraine's main provider GigaTrans dropped to below 20 per cent of normal levels in the early hours of Friday, according to UK-based NetBlocks.Mr Fedorov, who is also Ukraine's digital minister, thanked Mr Musk.He also gave a "special thanks" to Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, "for swift decisions related to authorisation and certification that allowed us to activate Starlink in Ukraine".Mr Musk's mother Maye called the development "Wonderful!" and his younger brother Kimbal shared the "now active" post with the caption: "Go team Ukraine!