Elon Musk announced Saturday that his company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine, following a request from a Kyiv official for the tech titan to provide stations to his troubled country.
“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk tweeted, adding “more terminals en route.”
The tweet came about 10 hours after Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged Musk to provide Starlink services to Ukraine, which had been invaded by neighboring Russia just days before.
“While 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,” Fedorov tweeted at Musk.
Starlink operates a constellation of over 2,000 satellites with the goal of providing internet access around the world.
On Friday, the company launched 50 more Starlink satellites into Earth’s orbit, with many more on the way.