Elon Musk Grants Ukraine Access to Starlink:
Elon Musk Grants Ukraine Access to Starlink:
SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced via a tweet that his company's satellite internet service, Starlink,
is now active in Ukraine, with plans to send additional terminal units to strengthen the service.
Musk's announcement came as a direct response to an appeal from a Ukrainian government official who urged tech giants
to provide his besieged, invasion-stricken country with Starlink terminals amid the ongoing events that had disrupted internet services across Ukraine.
Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, also tweeted
on his Twitter account saying: While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine.
While your rockets successfully land from space once again, Russian rockets are attacking Ukrainian civilians.
We ask that you provide Ukraine with Starlink terminals.
Fedorov also called on Musk to address rational Russians and urge them to stand against their government's invasion — though he doubted Musk would do so.
Musk responded just 10 hours later, stating that he had agreed to the request.
The immediate impact in Ukraine and the extent of Starlink's deployment was not immediately apparent, since most Ukrainians had already fled their homes.
In response to Musk's announcement, Ukraine's official Twitter account tweeted: Thank you. We appreciate it.
Internet connectivity across Ukraine was severely affected by the Russian invasion,
both in the southern and eastern regions of the country where fighting was most intense.
Internet monitors told Reuters that access to the country's main internet provider, GigaTrans, briefly dropped
to around 20 percent of normal levels before recovering to higher levels.
They added that it was unclear how much of the drop was due to Ukrainians fleeing their homes.
Elon Musk Announces Starlink Service Is Now Active in Ukraine:
Alp Toker, Director of NetBlocks
(a non-governmental organization working on network security and monitoring internet availability worldwide): We are currently observing
national connectivity at 87 percent of normal levels, a figure that reflects service disruptions
as well as population displacement and the closure of homes and businesses since the morning of the 24th.
Starlink is a large network of satellites orbiting at low altitude with the aim of providing high-speed internet service
around the world. There are currently more than 1,500 satellites in operation.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time SpaceX has offered to send Starlink terminals to countries in need.
Elon Musk also offered last month to send Starlink terminals to Tonga,
where a volcanic eruption had disrupted internet access throughout the country.
Ukrainian officials also released further information about a Belarusian electronic espionage operation,
clarifying that it was targeting personal email accounts belonging to Kyiv forces in order to gather intelligence on their movements and deployments.
Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team stated that hackers had targeted Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, and Belarusians alike.
The espionage was not limited to Ukrainians alone, and also included numerous other media organizations in Belarus.
Elon Musk Grants Ukraine Access to Starlink:
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