Russia is developing an analogue of the U.S. Starlink satellite communications system together with China. It believes the project will be ready as early as this December.
In parallel, Ukraine is developing a similar system with one of the European countries. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this while speaking with journalists on August 22.
“Of course we will work with Starlink, but we are also working on another European project. We have begun testing it. That is, at every level of threat we are preparing our responses and steps,” the head of state said.
He said that Ukraine and the European country will launch a certain system after the Chinese-Russian analogue is launched.
He said that at the beginning of the year he received a request from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense to reach an agreement with the American leader on using Starlink systems for strikes on Russia for defensive purposes. The Defense Ministry said that SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, had agreed to this and that only political-level approval remained.
“I received the relevant information, made an inquiry, and held a meeting with the President of the United States. I am grateful to the President of America—we had a long conversation on this topic. I was able to assure him that this would help bring the war to an end by appropriately reducing Russia’s ability to drag the war out. Since I had such information from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, I told the President of America that Musk had confirmed the relevant use for us. We made several calls to Musk. It was still early in America, and no one answered the calls at that moment. Both delegations were present when we called. We agreed that the American side would hold discussions at home if SpaceX was ready. Money was needed to implement this idea. I met with Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa and agreed on the necessary financing. This is significant financing—more than a billion. They confirmed it to me. Then I had a second meeting with the President of the United States. He said that I had supposedly deceived him, because Musk had refused Ukraine the use of Starlink on Russian territory. I returned to our Ministry of Defense and they said that maybe that was the case,” the President of Ukraine recounted.
He added that Elon Musk viewed the use of the systems for strikes in Russia as an escalation. The American billionaire favors stopping the war, not continuing it. However, Musk may change his mind when he sees more arguments.
“And this really can lead to a reduction in precisely those capabilities of Russia thanks to which it is dragging out the war, hoping for another winter of war, and making corresponding plans. Elon Musk has already made such decisive decisions regarding Starlink that helped protect lives. Various people of ours have already been in contact with him. And the President of the United States of America also worked with him—his team did. And we began to receive different, more encouraging feedback. We are waiting for the relevant meetings and so on. If no one strongly fuels the corresponding information waves, then I think there may be results,” the head of state suggested.
“President Trump said, ‘I told you that SpaceX and Musk refused Ukraine, and you told me otherwise.’ But I had completely different information from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. This, by the way, is part of the reasons for some steps,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He said that the dialogue with the American leader continues, but it is difficult to predict what will happen next.
“I did what I was asked to do. I did it over the course of two meetings. Also in Versailles, President Macron did it for me with President Trump. They had a big meeting. Emmanuel did everything to explain our idea and how it could bring the end of the war closer, and President Trump said: ‘Okay, I will support the Starlink idea.’ We value this very much. And Alex Stubb also helped. Overall, I probably brought in about 10 leaders already. We all worked to ensure that President Trump gave the green light, and I am grateful that he truly looked at this prospect and saw a positive opportunity to bring the end of the war closer,” he said.