Reuters: Telecoms company Eutelsat in talks with EU to provide satellite internet to Ukraine

French satellite telecommunications company Eutelsat is in talks with the European Union about providing Ukraine with satellite internet terminals, amid wider concerns that Elon Musk’s satellite company Starlink, which currently provides much of the country’s internet access, could end its support, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“We are actively collaborating with European institutions and business partners to enable the swift deployment of additional user terminals for critical missions and infrastructure,” a spokesperson for Eutelsat told Reuters.

Though it possesses a smaller fleet of satellites, Eutelsat said that it offered the same coverage and latency in Europe as Starlink, and that its equipment could be “deployed swiftly” to support “the most critical missions” in Ukraine.

In an article published on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that Eutelsat’s discussions with the EU concerned the use of its low earth orbit OneWeb network, numbering 600 satellites at an altitude of 1,200 kilometres, and a smaller network in geostationary orbit. SpaceX’s Starlink, which also operates in low earth orbit, comprises some 7,000 satellites.

Last month Reuters reported that the United States could cut off Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite system if Kyiv refused to sign a deal granting Washington large shares of revenues generated by Ukraine’s natural resources.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump had been due to sign a substantially revised agreement at the White House on Friday, after initial drafts were rejected by Kyiv. However, following their acrimonious exchange in front of reporters in the Oval Office, the signing ceremony was cancelled, though there have been moves from both sides to finalise the deal since then.