KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation says equipment to use SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has arrived in his country.
Mykhailo Fedorov thanked SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the equipment in a Twitter post Monday that was accompanied by a photo of boxes on the back of a truck.
Musk replied with his own tweet saying: “You are most welcome.”
The tech billionaire said over the weekend that Starlink was now “active” in Ukraine and more equipment to use it was on the way. That followed a public request from Fedorov for the service:
"While you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine!" Fedorov tweeted. "While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand."
Starlink is a satellite-based internet system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. It markets itself as “ideally suited” for areas where internet service is unreliable or unavailable.
Starlink includes close to 2,000 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth more than 340 miles up. The system was also used in Tonga after a huge volcanic eruption and tsunami severed a crucial undersea cable, cutting off its main internet connection for weeks.
Musk's second Twitter exchange with Fedorov happened as Russian forces shelled Ukraine's second-largest city, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital in a 17-mile convoy. Talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.
Putin hasn’t disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, redrawing the map of Europe and reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.