Ukrainians will have to live with the specter of Elon Musk cutting off satellite communications keeping their hospitals, military bases and troops online, as there are no short-term alternatives that can match the tech mogul’s Starlink system.
Starlink has become vital to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia but leaves Kyiv at the mercy of the entrepreneur, now a top advisor to United States President Donald Trump. Musk in March warned that the “entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”
To cope with that risk, the European Union is on the lookout for backup options for Ukraine. One of those is Franco-British operator Eutelsat, which is pitching itself as a way for Kyiv to get out from under Musk’s thumb.
Working with Starlink “is a dependence that can be decided in the White House or [Trump’s private residence] Mar-a-Lago,” Eutelsat Chief Executive Officer Eva Berneke told POLITICO. “It’s good to have multiple options.”
But today’s Starlink alternatives aren’t ready to take on Musk — including Eutelsat, by Berneke’s own admission.
“If we were to take over the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all the citizens, we wouldn’t be able to do that. Let’s just be very honest,” Berneke said. “But I do think we can provide capacity for some of the critical use cases of government.”
Few firms have invested in low-earth orbit satellites. Such systems offer faster connections and lower latency — crucial for real-time operations like drone warfare — but they remain costly and cumbersome to operate. Starlink, which is owned by Musk’s SpaceX, leads the market, with Eutelsat as a strong challenger and others, like Amazon’s Project Kuiper, still lagging behind.
“This type of solution that Starlink is offering is unique,” said Christopher Baugh, a space industry expert at consulting firm Analysys Mason. Starlink has “broken barriers technically” and “filled the void, because nothing else was available,” he said.
With cutting-edge, compact kits and a vast web of flexible beams, Starlink’s 7,000 satellites dwarf Eutelsat’s 600-strong fleet and comparatively clunkier terminals. Musk’s network can offer between 23 and 490 times the capacity of Eutelsat over Ukraine, depending on the use scenarios.
Starlink reportedly had over 42,000 kits in Ukraine last year. “I don’t think we need to get anywhere close to that but you could actually think about at least having a couple of thousand … to have back-up in the critical places,” Berneke said.
SpaceX and the Ukrainian government didn’t reply to POLITICO’s requests for comment.
Europe as a backup
Musk’s influence in the conflict isn’t just hypothetical. In 2022 he denied a request to activate Starlink over Russian-occupied Crimea, thwarting a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian ships, as it would have made parent company SpaceX “explicitly complicit in a major act of war.”
“[The] Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army,” Musk said in March, weeks after denying a report that U.S. negotiators had threatened to shut down Starlink as part of a deal on critical minerals.
According to Eutelsat’s Berneke, “the last couple of weeks have shown that you need multiple sources” to run military and government communications.
The European company is now in talks with the EU to get money to send more user kits on the ground and possibly to secure funding for future satellite launches that would create more network capacity in the years to come.
“Discussions are indeed ongoing at [the] EU level, with our member states and with the industry,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.
Investors are taking notice. Eutelsat’s shares recently skyrocketed, fueled by hopes the company would replace Starlink in Ukraine. (The stock has since lost some of that momentum.)
The EU is also working on a system called IRIS², a multibillion-euro project to develop a sovereign constellation to compete with Starlink. But delays and cost overruns have meant it is only set to be operational in the early 2030s.
“It’s great that there’s a cooperation between governments and private,” said Baugh, the analyst. “But at the end of the day, it’s a drop in the bucket.”
This article has been updated.
The post Ukraine is stuck with Musk’s Starlink for now appeared first on Politico.
