Starlink could become part of Ukraine’s air defense system: Stubb asked Musk to expand coverage for Ukraine
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage in Ukraine to target Russian ballistic missile launchers.
He made these remarks in an interview with Reuters, according to Censor.NET.
Three factors
Stubb has his doubts that Russia’s war against Ukraine will end before winter. According to him, there are three factors that will help the country survive it:
- air defense;
- additional power generation capacity;
- money.
"One is air defenses and even Starlink would be to a certain extent a good air defense there. And the second one is energy installations for the winter. The third one is money. So those are the things that we're working on. We're working on putting up a winter package because I don't see the war ending, you know, before the winter," he said.
Stubb reached out to Musk
Stubb also said that he had reached out to SpaceX founder Elon Musk regarding expanding the coverage area of the Starlink satellite network to include Ukraine.
"That's why ... I plead that Elon Musk would give the Ukrainians the possibility to use Starlink in areas where there are ballistic missile launchers, either in the occupied territory of Ukraine or in Russia for strategic purposes because that would save lives," he added.
What is known about Starlink over Russia
On August 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that, due to a misunderstanding between the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Musk, and U.S. President Donald Trump, Kyiv had mistakenly believed that Musk had already approved the use of Starlink over Russia.
Subsequently, according to Zelenskyy, it became clear that Musk had not granted such permission.
Ukraine is already using drones equipped with Starlink to strike targets in the occupied territories. At the same time, the terminals do not operate over Russian territory.
Kyiv is considering the possibility of using Starlink in Russia, specifically to rapidly destroy Russian ballistic missile launchers.
