Politico: Ukraine will be forced to rely on Elon Musk's Starlink for now

Ukraine will be forced to remain dependent on the Starlink satellite network, which provides critical communications on the battlefield and in civilian facilities, because there are currently no alternatives that can match its capabilities and efficiency, writes Politico.

The Starlink satellite internet system, launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX, has become vital to hospitals, military units and government communications in Ukraine. But that reliance has made Kyiv vulnerable to Musk's own decisions, who said in March that "entire front line would collapse if I turned off Starlink."

Musk, who is currently a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has already demonstrated how significant his influence is in geopolitics. In 2022, he refused to activate Starlink over occupied Crimea, effectively thwarting a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships.

European officials are increasingly concerned about this dependency and are looking for alternatives. One of them is Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat, which is offering itself as a backup option — although it admits it cannot fully replace Starlink.

"The Starlink collaboration is a dependence that can be decided in the White House or [Trump's private residence] Mar-a-Lago," Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke told Politico. "It's good to have multiple options."

However, according to Berneke, her company is not yet able to completely replace Starlink: "If we were to take over the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all the citizens, we wouldn't be able to do that. Let's just be very honest."

Ukraine currently has over 42,000 Starlink terminals deployed, powered by over 7,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. They provide fast, stable, and low-latency communications — especially important for operations like drone control. In comparison, Eutelsat has only about 600 satellites, and their terminals are less mobile and less powerful.

Berneke proposed the idea of placing several thousand Eutelsat terminals in strategic locations in Ukraine, but noted that the company would need significant financial support from the EU to scale up. Negotiations between Eutelsat, the European Commission and member states on financing new terminals and satellite launches are already underway.

"The last couple of weeks have shown that you need multiple sources to run military and government communications," Berneke said, hinting at the risks associated with Musk's political connections.

The EU is also pushing its own long-term project, the IRIS² satellite constellation, which is intended to be a sovereign answer to Starlink. However, the system is not scheduled to launch until the early 2030s due to delays and cost overruns.