Elon Musk claimed in a tweet Saturday in response to a call from a Ukrainian official that his group SpaceX had activated the Starlink satellite service in Ukraine and that the company was sending equipment to the country.
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“The Starlink service is now up and running. Other stations are on the way,” the president of Tesla and SpaceX Aeronautics Group said on Twitter.
Ten hours ago, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mikhailo Fedorov, challenged the billionaire on the social network, asking him to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations.
“While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine! If your missiles succeed in landing from space, then Russian missiles attack Ukrainian civilians! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations,” the Ukrainian official in charge of the digital sector wrote on Saturday morning.
Along the same lines, Elon Musk called for encouraging “reasonable Russians” to oppose their government.
SpaceX on Friday launched a second shipment of about 50 Starlink satellites to provide Internet connectivity to customers around the world.
On Saturday, it was not clear how users in Ukraine had the terrestrial capabilities to receive the service.