‘Thanks, Elon Musk’: Ukraine receives Starlink internet terminals

Ukraine on Monday received Starlink satellite internet terminals from SpaceX. "Starlink — here. Thanks, Elon Musk," Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted, to which Musk replied, “You are most welcome.”

A few days back, the Ukrainian government requested Musk to provide Starlink terminals as the country started facing internet outages after the launch of a full-scale war by Russia.

On Saturday, Musk said that Starlink service was active in Ukraine and more terminals were en route to the war-ravaged country.

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According to Reuters, the terminals look like home satellite television dishes and can relatively provide fast internet services by connecting to a fleet of satellites in low orbit.

Even though the terminals come as an urgent helping hand to Ukraine to bring back internet services amid the strong changes of cyberattacks from Moscow, experts pointed out that they (terminals) could become Russian targets.

In a series of tweets posted on February 27, John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab project, said that “Russia has decades of experience hitting people by targeting their satellite communication.”

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“Connectivity in #Ukraine is necessary. Now that Starlink devices are headed into an active conflict zone, though, *possible* risks are about to get battle-tested,” Railton wrote on the microblogging site.

Another expert, Tim Farrar, who is a consultant in satellite communications, said it will be challenging to install the internet terminals that require a clear view of the sky to connect to Starlink.

Farrar added that as high-rise buildings can block the internet service, it might be required that one has to go to the top of the highest building nearby to set the antenna, Reuters further reported.