For many Ukrainians, staying online has been daunting as Russia attacks telecoms and power supplies, but some people, like software and communications engineer Oleg Kutkov, are testing a new way to stay connected.
In a FaceTime interview with Kiev’s VOA Mandarin, Kutkov held up the two-part terminal components needed to connect via Starlink, an internet constellation of some 2,000 satellites operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s private company SpaceX, one of many companies. support Ukraine.
The Starlink dish and modem setup is easy to use, according to Kutkov, who is in his 30s.
“You just place the receiver outside, turn it on, wait a few minutes, and then you can connect without any additional settings,” he told VOA Mandarin on Monday.
Kutkov said: “Our government communicates with citizens using social channels (media), and we get all the information from them on the Internet. Not from TV or radio, but from the Internet. So [having connectivity] Its very important.”
Skylink has arrived in Ukraine with next-gen speed. On February 26, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, tweeted at Musk: “While you are trying to colonize Mars – Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets land successfully from space – Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civilians. ! We ask that you provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and call on sane Russians to stand up.”
Hours later, Musk tweeted that Ukraine would soon have Starlink service and despite criticism that he was using the crisis as a marketing stunt, the material started arriving there on February 28.
Fedorov tweeted on March 9 that a second shipment of Starlink equipment had arrived as the situation in Ukraine continued to deteriorate.
According to NetBlocks, a London-based organization that tracks internet outages around the world, several major cities in southern Ukraine, including Kherson and Mariupol, have experienced severe internet disruptions due to attacks on infrastructure. and power supplies.
In other regions, including Kharkiv and Kyiv, internet connections were disrupted when Russian troops launched cyberattacks targeting financial and government websites in Ukraine.
And even though Musk has warned that the Skylink connection is in progress used by Russia to target users, Kutkov shared his experiences with the service on Twitter. He told VOA Mandarin that he has received requests for support from all over the country, including ordinary citizens, businesses and even the military.
“Ukraine is a highly digitized country,” Kutlov said. “We have everything online.”
SpaceX is one of a growing number of private companies that began taking an active role in supporting Ukraine in the fight against Russia almost as soon as Russia began its missile and artillery attacks on 24 February.
Mobile carriers including T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon have waived charges for calls and texts to and from Ukraine.
Tesla allows all electric vehicles to use its charging stations along Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Hungary.
Airbnb, the online accommodation marketplace, has stepped up to arrange free short-term accommodation for 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Google and Facebook have banned Russian state media from their European platforms while working with European governments to combat the spread of misinformation from the Kremlin. Twitter began labeling all tweets containing content from Russian state-affiliated media on February 28.
Last Friday, more than 340 companies announced their withdrawal from the Russian economy in protest against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Yale School of Management.
Russia threatened to counter this exodus by nationalizing foreign companies that decided to flee the country in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Eli Dourado, a senior fellow at Utah State University’s Center for Growth and Opportunity, told VOA Mandarin that the reason so many private companies took action is because Russia’s invasion has “shocked and disgusted much of the world”.
He said the circumstances of the conflict made many people feel that “it’s almost pure good versus evil”.
Abishur Prakash, co-founder and geopolitical futurist of the Center for Innovating the Future, a Toronto-based consultancy, said one of the reasons Western companies, especially tech companies, are taking sides is “because the global landscape has now changed permanently.”
“The West is trying to permanently dissociate itself from Russia, and Western tech companies are more than compliant,” Prakash, author of The World Is Vertical: How Technology Is Remaking Globalization, said in an email response to VOA. Mandarin. “There’s a tacit acceptance on tech company boardrooms that Russia has gone ‘off limits’.”
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