The European Commission is figuring out how it could help Ukraine secure satellite communication capacity in the wake of Elon Musk reportedly threatening to pull Kyiv’s access to his Starlink network.
Space-based communication systems are a critical tool for Ukraine, but it remains unclear whether Musk will continue to offer Starlink as the war grinds on.
Ukraine said last year it has about 42,000 Starlink terminals in operation in the country; about half are financed by Poland.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Kyiv had already « expressed interest » in how it could use Govsatcom — a pooled network of the EU’s existing national government satellite capacity — and IRIS², a new constellation only set to be operational in the 2030s.
« The Commission will pursue its contacts with Ukraine in that regard, » said Regnier.
Earlier this week, French Renew MEP Christophe Grudler told the EU executive in a letter that it should urgently “assess all possible alternative satellite solutions that the EU could offer Ukraine” instead of Starlink.
Grudler said expediting the deployment of Govsatcom this year by skipping the certification process could work as a stopgap solution while IRIS² is being developed. Regnier said the system offer Kyiv « precursor governmental services » without specifying what that would be in practice, or how soon it could be operational.
Other options would be sourcing commercial capacity from Eutelsat, Hispasat or SES satellites already in geostationary orbit or with the OneWeb constellation.
