Starlink Activated Over Ukraine, Citizen-Defenders Now Have Access to Satellites
As freedom-loving citizens do what they can for the people of hard-pressed Ukraine, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has answered a call from Ukraine for help that only he could provide.
On Sunday, Musk announced that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service was active in Ukraine where the Russian invasion was vastly disrupting internet access, according to Fox Business.
On Saturday, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, begged Musk for help.
“[W]hile you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! 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,” Fedorov tweeted.
“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk tweeted in response. “More terminals en route.”
Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2022
Elon Musk said Saturday his company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine, after a Kyiv official urged the tech titan to provide his embattled country with stations. https://t.co/HNl6MM6mgI
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) February 27, 2022
Federov called for others to act against Russia, including major credit card companies and even social media platforms.
Russia started a disgraceful war in my country! In 2022 cruise missiles target residential neighborhoods, kindergartens and hospitals. I address @Visa and @Mastercard to block their services on all cards issued within the Russian Federation @VisaNews @MastercardNews. pic.twitter.com/KIu8bUDYHw
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 27, 2022
Mark Zuckerberg, while you create Metaverse — Russia ruins real life in Ukraine! We ask you to ban access to @facebookapp and @instagram from Russia — as long as tanks and missiles attack our kindergartens and hospitals! @Meta.
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 27, 2022
Starlink has about 2,000 satellites in its network. The satellites hover in a low earth orbit and give high-speed broadband internet to remote areas.
Starlink can be used in hard-to-reach areas and in disasters.
In Ukraine, Starlink can allow citizens to communicate about troop movements they witness and continue to upload acts of Russian aggression for the world to see.
Fedorov has said he is trying to form an “IT Army of Ukraine” to take a cyberwar to Russia, and as of Saturday, the Telegram channel he asked volunteers to connect with had more than 90,000 subscribers, according to The Washington Post.
We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given here: https://t.co/Ie4ESfxoSn. There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists.
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022
“We encourage you to use any vectors of cyber and DDoS attacks on these resources,” the channel said, referring to distributed denial of service attacks
The Post noted that some Russian sites were not accessible in Russia.
“How impactful the DDoS attacks against Russian infrastructure have been is not clear,” said threat analyst Brett Callow of security software company Emsisoft. “That said, the fact that certain Web resources have been geo-fenced would perhaps suggest at least some limited success.”
Activists in the hacking collective Anonymous have also said they will battle Russia in cyberspace.
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