The European Commission is studying options to replace Starlink for Ukraine amid reports of possible restrictions on access to the system by billionaire Elon Musk. About this informs Political.
Satellite communications are critical for Ukraine, but it remains unclear whether Elon Musk will continue to provide access to Starlink in the face of war. Currently, approximately 42,000 Starlink terminals operate in the country, almost half of which are financed by Poland.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Rainier said Kyiv had already “expressed an interest” in the possibility of using Govsatcom – the EU’s combined network of national government satellite systems – and IRIS², a new satellite array planned for launch in the 2030s.
“The Commission will continue its contacts with Ukraine in this direction”, Rainier said.
Member of the European Parliament from the Renew group, Christoph Grudler, in a letter to the EU executive called for an urgent “evaluation of all possible alternative satellite solutions that the EU can offer Ukraine” to replace Starlink. Among the potential alternatives, the use of commercial satellite capacities of Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES, which are already in geostationary orbit, as well as the OneWeb network, are being considered.
