Ukraine’s Dependence on Starlink in War Won’t Be Easy to Break

Ukraine, reliant on satellite communications from Elon Musk’s Starlink in a war that’s decimated the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, is finding that there’s no easy way out. 

As relations with President Donald Trump’s 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.

But the alternatives have drawbacks, and the country can’t afford a delay if it loses access, they said. 

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’s share price up almost sixfold in the week following Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s public argument at the White House. 

Still, Chief Executive Officer Eva Berneke said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday that her company needs “a couple of months” and financial help to provide 40,000 terminals to Ukraine to replace Starlink in the country.

While Musk hasn’t said he’ll withdraw Starlink access, Ukraine has been steadily losing ground to Russian forces and doesn’t 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’s leaders to the negotiating table. 

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, which oversaw the effort to integrate Starlink in the country, declined to comment about the service. A representative for Musk’s SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Eutelsat is also about 10-times smaller than its rival, and the French company’s more than 600 LEO satellites also sit at a higher altitude than Starlink’s 7,000. 

“The constellation will have a lower capacity, limiting the actions Ukraine can undertake,” said CCS Insight analyst Joe Gardiner, who warned that dislodging Starlink won’t be as simple as swapping out terminals. Other issues range from Eutelsat’s OneWeb terminals being less mobile than Starlink’s, to lower-quality equipment and a lack of interoperability with Starlink, he added. 

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.

Troops in Russia’s 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’s former deputy infrastructure minister, said. “Of course this would be a big loss for us,” he said about a potential cutoff. 

Losing Starlink would be “very painful, but not catastrophic,” military and radio technology blogger Serhiy Beskrestnov said. There are several alternative communications channels available, but they are more expensive and slower, he said. 

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. 

“Without Starlink it’s going to be bad,” Ivan said. 

Even before the Trump-Zelenskiy blowup, Ukraine had been exploring alternatives. There’s 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’s dramatic pullback from America’s commitments. 

The European Commission is holding discussions with member states and the industry, and “we understand that dependency is not the best way for us to have our own security,” commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

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.

“We could provide further assistance by supplying everything from artillery ammunition to Starlink command and control communication,” Pistorius said in a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart in Berlin.

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. 

The Ukrainian military has relied on SpaceX’s 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.

Musk curtailed Starlink access in 2022 to prevent Ukraine from using it for an attack on Russia’s 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.

With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Olesia Safronova, Michael Nienaber, Andrea Palasciano and Gian Volpicelli.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.