Ukraine gets Starlink satellite Internet and warning about safety
March 1, 2022, 9:57 am

Ukraine gets Starlink satellite Internet and warning about safety

Satellite communication (File photo; Pixabay)

The Arab News reported, citing Reuters, Ukraine on Monday said it had received donated Starlink satellite Internet terminals from SpaceX, but an Internet security researcher warned these could become Russian targets.

“Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk,” Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted, days after asking SpaceX’s billionaire chief executive officer Elon Musk for help. Fedorov’s tweet included a picture of the back of a military-looking truck, loaded with terminals.

Musk tweeted back, “You are most welcome.”

The terminals look like home satellite television dishes and can provide relatively fast Internet service, by residential standards, by connecting to a fleet of satellites in low orbit.

But John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab project, took to Twitter to warn the terminals could become Russian targets.

He tweeted: “Re: @elonmusk’s starlink donation. Good to see. But remember: if #Putin controls the air above #Ukraine, users’ uplink transmissions become beacons ... for airstrikes."

He added in a series of 15 tweets detailing the risks: “#Russia has decades of experience hitting people by targeting their satellite communications."

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Musk said on Saturday that Starlink is available in Ukraine and SpaceX is sending more terminals to the country, whose Internet has been disrupted due to the Russian invasion.

Fedorov thanked Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States for helping to swiftly approve the activation of Starlink in Ukraine.

Tim Farrar, a consultant in satellite communications said that one of the challenges is to install end-user terminals, which require a clear view of the sky to connect to Starlink.

He said that as high-rise buildings can block the service, one has to go to the top of the highest building nearby to set up the antenna, adding “that’s a fairly vulnerable place to be.”

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He said: “It is not going to be something that can offer a replacement for terrestrial Internet on a large scale."

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Source: arabnews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.