Shortly after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, officials in Kyiv appealed to billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk to help keep citizens online with his Starlink satellite-based internet service.
Musk obliged, and has sent additional equipment since, as well as instructions on how to keep the satellite receivers safe from Russian signal location gear.
Now, Starlink is actually being utilized to assist Ukrainian forces in targeting Russian military forces and assets and helping President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces ‘dominate the skies.’
The Daily Mail notes:
Aerorozvidka (Aerial Reconnaissance) is being used to attack Russian drones and target Vladimir Putin’s army of tanks and track down their positions in the conflict, which has been ongoing since February 24…
Drones used in the field are able to use the newly available Starlink to keep connected and provide intelligence as internet and power outages plague Ukraine.
With the technology, the drones can be directed to drop anti-tank munitions to help ward off the Russian attack.
Earlier, Zelenskyy took to social media to heap praise on Musk for helping his country and invited him for a visit once the war is over.
“Talked to . I’m grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds. Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities,” he said.
Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, also the country’s vice-prime minister, told the Washington Post that the Starlink tech has already proved “very effective.”
“The quality of the link is excellent,” he said. “We are using thousands, in the area of thousands, of terminals with new shipments arriving every other day.”
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