(CNN) — SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced Saturday that the company’s Starlink internet satellites are now active in Ukraine, as the country suffers power outages from the Russian invasion.
“Starlink service is already active in Ukraine”, Musk tweeted, the also CEO of Tesla. “More terminals on the way.”
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister asked Musk to provide internet service to the country amid Russian attacks, and Musk complied, according to a Twitter exchange between the two on Saturday.
Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the Ukrainian minister of digital transformation, tweeted Musk: “While you are trying to colonize Mars… Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets are successfully landing from space, Russian rockets are attacking the Ukrainian civilian population. We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address the sensible Russians to keep up.
star link is a internet satellite constellation that aims to blanket the planet with high-speed broadband and could bring connectivity to billions of people who still lack reliable Internet access.
The idea calls for a swarm of satellites operating in low Earth orbit — about 340 miles up, in SpaceX’s case — to provide continuous coverage.
The Twitter exchange took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s deterrent forces, which include nuclear weapons, to be put on high alert. Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Evgeny Yenin said that the talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Monday morning.
There have been “intermittent” power outages in Ukraine, but the internet remains “generally available,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Saturday.
The Starlink system was recently used in Tonga, in the South Pacific Ocean, to provide internet service to connect remote towns after an undersea volcano erupted in January, according to SpaceX. The eruption was likely the largest recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years, CNN reported.
CNN’s Ellie Kaufman, Jackie Wattles and Helen Regan contributed to this report.