Ukraine Now Using Over 10,000 Starlink Units to Keep Country Online
Ukraine is now using over 10,000 Starlink dishes to help bring the internet to war-torn areas across the country, according to a government minister.
“So, right now, it's more than 10,000 units in Ukraine,” Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister of digital transformation, told The Washington Post in a video stream on Tuesday.
According to Bornyakov, the Ukrainian government has been installing the Starlink dishes in areas hit hard by the Russian invasion. This includes the cities of Chernihiv and Mariupol, which the Russian military have attempted to take over.
“There was need for [supplying] military first and hospitals, but then we started to give them out to some enterprises because we need business running,” Bornyakov said. “We need companies to work, even in cities where it's in close proximity from Russian troops.
“So we're able to spread them equally and fulfill not just basic needs but also to those who are, as I mentioned before, want to conduct business, and this business is international or it requires instant communication,” he later added.
The fast rollout highlights how SpaceX’s Starlink system can quickly bring high-speed internet to a country facing a crisis. SpaceX began delivering the first Starlink units to Ukraine a month ago to help keep the country online amid Russia’s invasion of the country.
Starlink works by using orbiting satellites to deliver broadband to users, instead of relying on ground-based fiber networks. For the consumer, all that’s needed is a Starlink dish, which can be pointed to the open sky to receive high-speed internet.
“Now there are thousands of Starlinks in Ukraine, been using them for different purposes, even in a war zone,” Bornyakov said. “My personal
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