Elon Musk: “High” probability of Russian attacks on Starlink in Ukraine

Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so the probability of being targeted is high. Please use with care.

When asked for specific advice, Musk said people in Ukranian should place the antenna as far away from people as possible, and place light camouflage over the antenna to avoid detection.

Musk was asked if Starlink could face a cyberattack like the one that affected Viasat. Almost all Viasat Ukraine user terminals were rendered useless by a Russian cyberattack on the day of the invasion.

The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine asked Musk to set up Starlink in his country after Russia invaded it. Two days later, Fedorov posted a photo of a truck full of Starlink terminals, after Musk responded in the affirmative.

We will keep you posted as we roll out more Starlinks across the country, Fedorov told Musk.

On Wednesday, Fedorov sent a message to Musk saying that Ukraine needs generators to keep Starlink and other services online due to Russian attacks on infrastructure. Musk recommended solar panels and a battery pack, but he followed up on Thursday by saying that he wasdating software to reduce peak power consumption so Starlink can be powered from a car cigarette lighter.

Starlink works for user in Kyiv

Starlink has not deployed any ground terminals in Ukraine, and the nearest one is in Poland. A speed test result showing a download rate of 137Mbps and a upload rate of 24Mbps was posted on Monday by Oleg Kutkov, who confirmed that Starlink was working for him. His top download speed was over 200Mbps for a while.

Kutkov told Insider that he bought his Starlink dish in December, after seeing Musk's post about the service being activated in Ukraine. The Insider article said he didn't expect Starlink to go live in the country as soon as 10 hours after Ukraine asked Musk to send kits.

Kutkov told the news site that he didn't expect it to work, but the system appears to be robust and provides a great connection. If the local Internet infrastructure is destroyed, Kutkov will use Starlink because he has fiber Internet.