"We’ve got more than 11,000 Starlink stations and they help us in our everyday fight on all the fronts."
Before War
SpaceX is giving Ukrainian soldiers warding off invading Russian forces a big leg up with its Starlink satellite internet service, Politico reports, providing stable internet connectivity free from Russian interference.
The Starlink terminals, powered by mobile generators, are helping artillery gunners accurately hit Russian targets, while also allowing them to send their families messages and even play a few video games in their down time, according to the report.
Controlling the Narrative
It has also provided Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a way to stay connected with the outside world and ensure that Russian president Vladimir Putin can't completely control the narrative during the ongoing invasion.
"The strategic impact is, it totally destroyed [Vladimir] Putin’s information campaign," Steve Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s tech outpost, told Politico. "He never, to this day, has been able to silence Zelensky."
SpaceX's broadband service has made a huge difference in the war so far.
"We’ve got more than 11,000 Starlink stations and they help us in our everyday fight on all the fronts," Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, told the publication. "We’re ready, even if there is no light, no fixed internet, through generators using Starlink, to renew any connection in Ukraine."
And After
It's impossible to say what the outcome of Russia's invasion of Ukraine will end up being, even though the country's soldiers have clearly already defied both Putin's and the world's expectations in their ability to hold off a much larger, but clumsier, enemy.
For now, though, Ukraine's main focus is weathering the storm, and it's good to know they have at least some tools in their arsenal to help them do just that.
More on Starlink's usefulness: Chinese Scientists Reportedly Plotting How to Destroy SpaceX Satellites
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