Elon Musk activates Starlink's satellite Internet service over Ukraine, says "more terminals are en route"

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his Space X undertaking's satellite Internet project called Starlink is now operational in Ukraine and there will be "more terminals en route" to take advantage of it. The move seems to have come as an answer to deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov's emotional pleas to provide his country with satellite Internet connectivity as an independent means of communication that can't be easily interfered with.

The Starlink satellites still require dish and receiver kits to provide Internet service, but Elon's reply means that now Ukraine is included in the list of countries where the service is available. So far, Starlink has only been present in parts of the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Australia, and New Zealand, so adding the war-torn Ukraine to the mix is a gesture of solidarity, provided that enough "terminals" aka Starlink Kits can be somehow delivered there to really make a dent in the government's Internet connectivity independence inside the country.

Starlink satellite dishes recently started popping up at Tesla Supercharge stations in the U.S. with charging app subscribers able to use the connectivity if needed while waiting for their electric cars to top up, a nice replacement of Tesla's premium cellular connectivity service that costs US$10 a month. Getting Elon Musk's satellite-based Internet connectivity costs $499 for the initial Starlink Kit that includes the so-called McFlatface dish while basic Starlink access costs $99 a month. There is also a US$500 a month Starlink Premium service, whose declared goal is to hit 500Mbps download speeds, but it's unclear what speeds would the Starlink Kits promised to Ukraine be able to muster if and when they reach the country.

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