It is no secret that the current war between Ukraine and Russia has the world on edge right now. Many are fearing the beginning of a World War III as Russia’s military continues to invade parts of Ukraine. With this, many are also watching on what will be done to help Ukraine attempt to fight back against Russia.
World renowned billionaire Elon Musk has attempted to aid Ukraine by providing Starlink Internet satellites. These terminals will provide internet access despite the attacks from Russia. Musk sent these terminals following a plea on Twitter from Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov:
Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2022
News of Musk’s internet terminals and exchange with Fedorov sparked multiple conversations across digital media. A Sprinklr search from February 26 to March 3 with search terms “Elon Musk,” “Starlink,” and “Ukraine” has generated 134.11K mentions and reached 1.32 billion users. Twitter dominates this conversation with 94,812 mentions.
Since sending the Starlink satellites a day after Fedorov’s plea, Musk has responded to questions from Fedorov on how to keep the satellites running via Twitter. However, Musk tweeted out on Thursday, March 3 that Ukrainians should use Starlink with extreme caution. He hinted that Russians may attempt to hack it and use it as a targeting mechanism. When a Ukrainian user asked him to elaborate on how they could use it with caution, he responded that Starlink should be used “only when needed” and the antenna should be placed “as far away from people as possible.”
Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
Russian Director-General of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, openly criticized Musk’s move on Twitter:
"…I warned about it, but our "muskophiles" said – he is the light of the world cosmonautics. Here, look, he has chosen the side. I don't even blame him personally. This is the West that we should never trust."
— Katya Pavlushchenko (@katlinegrey) March 2, 2022
To which Musk sarcastically responded:
Ukraine civilian Internet was experiencing strange outages – bad weather perhaps? – so SpaceX is helping fix it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
It remains to be seen if Elon’s concerns of Russian attacks will come into fruition. Until then though, Ukrainians will at least have internet access as havoc continues to surround them.
Author: Eden Wallace
