Elon Musk says his satellite-internet service Starlink "is now active" in Ukraine, following a request for help from the country's deputy prime minister.
Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted the Tesla and SpaceX founder, saying: "Elon Musk, while you try to colonise Mars - Russia tries 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."
The eccentric business magnate replied hours later to say the Starlink service was online in Ukraine and more of its dishes are "en route".
SpaceX has been developing the space-based system, which uses around 2,000 satellites to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world, with the company referring to its dishes as terminals.
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Ukraine’s internet service has been disrupted during Russia's invasion. According to UK-based NetBlocks, connectivity to Ukraine's main provider GigaTrans dropped to below 20 per cent of normal levels in the early hours of Friday.
Mr Fedorov, who is also Ukraine's digital minister, thanked Mr Musk.
He also gave a "special thanks" to Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, "for swift decisions related to authorisation and certification that allowed us to activate Starlink in Ukraine".
Mr Musk's mother Maye called the development "Wonderful!" and his younger brother Kimbal shared the "now active" post with the caption: "Go team Ukraine! Putin has to be stopped. It's either now or later. I say now. Are you with me?"
The Ukrainian Government said yesterday that 198 Ukrainians, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others had been wounded during Europe’s largest land war since World War II.
Russian forces have reached the outskirts of the capital Kyiv, but the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its latest intelligence assessment that the Russian advance had “temporarily slowed”.
With the main Russia armoured columns reported to be 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the centre of Kyiv, the MoD said the delay was likely to be the result of “acute logistics problems” as well as the strength of Ukrainian resistance.
Western allies have refused to send troops, but they are providing weapons and recently announced a new round of economic sanctions on Russia.
Britain, the US, Canada and the European Union said selected Russian banks will be excluded from the Swift global payments system.
They have also decided to impose restrictions which will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves and crackdown on so-called golden passports for wealthy Russians who support the Kremlin.
Boris Johnson has said the West is “tightening the economic ligature” around Vladimir Putin ’s Russia.
