EU leaders seek alternatives to Starlink as Ukraine’s battlefield communications face risks
Trump has repeatedly urged Ukraine to refrain from attacking Russian refineries and announced a truce on energy infrastructure attacks. European Union leaders are grappling with how to reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system after disruptions to its services raised concerns about Kyiv’s reliance on US-controlled technology for battlefield operations. However, Ukraine has continued to target Russian refineries.
Shares in Eutelsat, the French satellite operator that runs the OneWeb network, rose 12 per cent on Friday, taking its gains for the week to 23 per cent. Paris-listed SES, another European satellite operator, gained 6.7 per cent. Eutelsat operates OneWeb, a network of around 600 low-Earth orbit satellites that provides broadband connectivity to governments, airlines and telecommunications operators. Starlink has played a central role in Ukraine’s war effort since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The first 500 Starlink terminals arrived in Ukraine two days later, and Musk subsequently granted the Ukrainian government and military access to the network, initially free of charge. In 2022, Musk refused a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink connectivity for a planned operation near Crimea, saying that doing so would make SpaceX explicitly complicit in a major act of war and risk escalating the conflict.
The issue has gained urgency after Ukrainian officials reported restrictions and slower speeds on parts of the Starlink system this week, amid growing tensions between Washington and Kyiv over Trump’s deal involving Russian diesel. Some Ukrainian officials suggested Washington was behind the restrictions reported on certain Starlink internet terminals. The company operates as a dual-use provider, with thousands of antennas active and devices capable of operating in environments affected by GPS jamming, Reuters reported.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe did not have an immediate alternative to the satellite network, which has become essential to Ukraine’s military communications, as leaders gathered for a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also in attendance. “Starlink is really necessary for Ukraine and unfortunately in (the) short term Europe can’t replace this capability,” Kallas said before the talks. She added that the European Defence Agency had identified critical capabilities that Europe lacked and needed to develop, stressing that the gaps had to be addressed “as soon as possible”. Musk said any disruption was the responsibility of the US government rather than his company, SpaceX. “Starlink is the key for Ukraine actually to fight or fight back,” Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs told reporters. The gains followed a Reuters report citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, which said an order to limit Starshield services in Ukraine had come from inside the White House. Analysts said the developments had strengthened the case for European satellite operators as governments increasingly sought alternatives to US technology. “The Starlink Ukrainian issue helped,” Oddo BHF analyst Stéphane Beyazian said of the share price movements, according to Reuters. “But more generally, shares have been done so much due to the Starlink risk — now investors are reconsidering them as the European industry will not disappear to Starlink,” he added. Eutelsat chief executive Jean-François Fallacher said in March that the company had sold its entire capacity in Ukraine. “We don’t see (Europe’s IRIS² satellite project) fully replicating Starlink’s capabilities in the short term, although SES and Eutelsat can already provide complementary satellite connectivity,” ING analyst Jan Frederik Slijkerman said. More recently, Musk said Starshield systems were owned and controlled by the US government, with decisions on restrictions ultimately resting with the US military and the US president.
Ukraine uses Starshield, the military-grade satellite service, for battlefield communications, mid-range strikes on Russian-occupied territory and interceptor drones. It also uses Starlink’s civilian satellite network, but not for offensive operations. Several European leaders acknowledged that building an alternative to Starlink would take time, even as the latest disruptions highlighted the need to strengthen the continent’s satellite communications capacity. “It takes time for us to have the same capabilities. We do have, but not enough. “It’s not yet clear to us in the UK what happened, why the service interruption occurred. The disruption has renewed investor interest in European satellite operators that could help reduce reliance on SpaceX. Backed by the French and British governments, OneWeb is widely viewed as Europe’s leading challenger to Starlink, whose much larger satellite network dominates the global low-Earth orbit broadband market. However, analysts cautioned that European systems could not immediately match Starlink’s capabilities. Ukraine’s then deputy prime minister and digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, publicly appealed to Musk for connectivity in the early days of the invasion. The system has enabled secure communications between Ukrainian military units and supported command, control, intelligence and surveillance operations. Its connectivity has also been particularly important to Ukraine’s extensive use of drones. However, the relationship has faced tensions over the years. The latest disruption has again drawn attention to the risks of Ukraine relying on a satellite network controlled by a private company whose military services are subject to US government decisions. For European leaders, the immediate challenge remains how to maintain Ukraine’s communications capabilities while developing alternative systems. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
So this is strategically something we have to discuss today. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he had discussed the issue with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, focusing on how European countries could provide similar services in the near future. British defence minister Wes Streeting also said he had raised Starlink with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday. But I am reassured, and was reassured directly by Secretary Hegseth, that the service has been restored,” Streeting told the BBC on Friday. Ukrainian officials reported slower speeds on the system on Wednesday, affecting connectivity.