Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Thursday that he has pleaded with SpaceX owner Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage for Ukraine so it can strike Russian ballistic missile launchers inside Russian territory.
Ukraine is severely lacking air defence systems needed to repel Russian ballistic missiles, and officials in Kyiv argue that enabling Starlink coverage inside Russia would allow them to target the missile launchers at their source.
Starlink is a satellite internet service operated by Musk's SpaceX aerospace manufacturing company, which uses a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband.
However, Starlink connections are not available to Ukraine in Russian territory.
"That's why… I plead that Elon Musk would give the Ukrainians the possibility to use Starlink in areas where there are ballistic missile launchers, either in the occupied territory of Ukraine or in Russia for strategic purposes because that would save lives," Stubb told news agency Reuters in an interview in New York.
Stubb and a Finnish delegation are in New York this week for the UN General Assembly.
