If we refer to the words of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, SpaceX is sending more Starlink terminals to Ukraine. “I spoke with Elon Musk. I am grateful to him for supporting Ukraine in word and deed. Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities, ”Vladimir Zelensky wrote on his Twitter on Saturday afternoon.
And if you are not in the know, it is important to note that SpaceX sent the first batch of its satellite dishes to the country on February 26, that is, almost immediately after the appeal that the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mikhail Fedorov, made on Twitter. This “package” came on February 28th. A few days later, Elon Musk warned Ukrainians to be careful when using the internet service, as it is the only non-Russian internet provider left in some of the country’s most war-torn areas.
The warning comes after John Scott-Railton, a security researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, pointed out that the Russian Federation has years of experience triangulating and targeting satellite transmissions with airstrikes, which could put Starlink satellites in danger, and the data of users using the company’s services may be compromised. Be that as it may, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has become a test for literally the entire Internet infrastructure of the country.
Intense fighting in cities such as Kyiv and Mariupol has already caused disruptions in the work of GigaTrans, the country’s major backbone Internet provider. Also worthy of mention is the fact that over the past few days, the Internet monitoring organization represented by NetBlocks has observed numerous loss of communication in the country. Among the most recent and potentially troubling is the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant incident, which resulted in the International Atomic Energy Agency saying it could no longer obtain “reliable information” from the facility.
