The United States began to look for an opportunity to provide Ukraine with a stable connection even before the start of a full-scale invasion. This led to the first deliveries of Starlink systems.
This is written by Quartz.
Journalists submitted a request to the US government and received documents that show that government contractor DAI began looking for the appropriate equipment as early as February 11. In the run-up to the Russian invasion, US officials were concerned about Russian attacks on electrical and communications infrastructure. The USAID agency worked to prevent this.
In the end, USAID purchased 1,333 terminals for $1,999,993, which is almost $1,500 each. SpaceX stated that this is how much their production costs, but at that time, similar equipment was sold to consumers for $500.
According to the media, on April 5, USAID published a press release describing the purchase but then deleted and re-posted it on the network with a different number of terminals — 5,000 of them. SpaceX itself also donated 3,600 terminals to Ukraine. Its president, Gwynn Shotwell, said the US government did not sponsor the purchase.
- On December 20, it was reported that the Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said that Ukraine had concluded an agreement with Elon Muskʼs SpaceX company, according to which in the coming months it will receive more than 10,000 Starlink antennas to stabilize communication in case of critical situations.
- According to Fedorov, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has received almost 22,000 Starlink antennas. All financial issues regarding them are currently resolved, but Ukraine will have to find additional funding in the spring.