Germany pays for Ukraine's access to Mask's Starlink alternative

Over the past year, Germany has been paying Ukraine's costs for its access to the European satellite system Eutelsat, the head of this Franco-British group said, writes dw.com.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Germany will pay for Ukraine's access to the satellite system of the Franco-British group Eutelsat, its CEO Eva Berneke said on Friday, April 4, Reuters reports. The amount was not specified.

In March, the European Commission made it clear that Ukraine's access to the European satellite network should be subsidized, and for sufficient communication, it will be necessary to increase the number of satellites.

The Iris2 project, initiated by the European Commission and worth 10,6 billion euros, is a collaboration between the public sector and private companies to bring together about 300 spacecraft, and will not begin operating until 2030 at the earliest.

Starlink remains the main means of communication in Ukraine

Currently, the Ukrainian military mainly uses the Starlink satellite network of Elon Musk's SpaceX. This network is much denser than Eutelsat, and the satellites are also more modern, so the Internet connection works much faster. However, in recent months, especially after Donald Trump took office as US president, doubts have arisen that the new American government and Musk, who holds a position in it, will continue to support Ukraine.

At the end of February, there were already reports of a possible shutdown of Starlink in Ukraine if the agreement on US access to Ukrainian minerals fails. According to Reuters, during the negotiations in Kyiv, Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, threatened an "imminent shutdown" of Starlink if the agreement is not signed. However, Musk himself denied this possibility.

Meanwhile, discussions continue in Europe to replace Starlink in Ukraine with an alternative operator. According to Reuters, Eutelsat is in talks with the European Union to have its OneWeb satellites eventually replace Starlink in Ukraine.

Poland purchased about 25 thousand Starlink systems for Ukraine

In March, a dispute erupted on the social network X between Musk and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. Musk said that Starlink is “the backbone of the Ukrainian army,” and if it is disconnected, the Ukrainian front will collapse. In response, Sikorski noted that Poland pays for Starlink for Ukraine, it costs it about $50 million a year, and if the Starlink system “turns out to be unreliable, we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

Musk responded sharply to Sikorsky's comment: "Shut up, little man. You're only paying a small fraction of the cost. There's no replacement for Starlink."

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