European allies are "rushing" to provide Kyiv with alternatives to the Starlink satellite network after a possible US pause in military support and intelligence sharing.
This is reported by the Financial Times.
Four major satellite operators — Luxembourgʼs SES, Spainʼs Hisdesat, Viasat, the owner of Britainʼs Inmarsat, and Franceʼs Eutelsat/OneWeb — confirmed to the publication that they are in talks with EU governments and institutions about providing Ukraine with a backup connection.
However, replacing Starlink remains a “huge challenge”, writes the FT. Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Development Mykhailo Fedorov says that more than 40 000 terminals are operating in military units, hospitals, humanitarian organizations and enterprises.
SES CEO Adel al Saleh said the company already provides services to Ukraine and plans to increase capacity there. Hisdesat CEO Miguel Angel Garcia Primo said his company had been contacted by European officials.
“We are part of this initiative. But it is very difficult, if at all possible, to deploy the same number of terminals that Starlink already has, because they have been accumulating for years,” he says.
The dispute between the US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office has revived discussions about alternatives to Starlink, writes the FT.
Experts and military officials say that communications have been intermittent in recent months, especially near the front line. A UAV operator working near Pokrovsk said the problem has been ongoing “for a long time”.
In the short term, a network of European services could become a backup option, in particular to ensure communication for government agencies, medical facilities, and power plants.
The signal transmission speed on Starlink devices is faster than that of competing services. However, the difference is only fractions of a second, so latency is only an issue in isolated cases.
European Parliament lawmakers are pressing the European Commission to quickly advance the “Govsatcom” initiative, which would pool satellite capabilities but is not expected to be operational until next year.
- On February 22, Reuters reported that the US was threatening to shut down Starlink unless Kyiv signed a minerals deal. This is critical because since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been using Starlink for critical communications on the front lines and at critical infrastructure facilities.
- On February 28, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky argued at the White House, and the mineral agreement was not signed. Already on March 4, the US president ordered the suspension of deliveries of American military aid to Kyiv, including that which was on its way. The aid will allegedly be on hold until Ukrainian representatives demonstrate a “good faith commitment to peace”.
- The other day, the FT wrote that the French satellite communications operator Eutelsat is negotiating with EU governments about expanding communications to the territory of Ukraine.
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