Elon Musk's SpaceX has activated more than 5,000 Starlink internet terminals in Ukraine, report says

• SpaceX has over 5,000 active Starlink terminals in Ukraine, a source told The Washington Post.
• Civilians, government officials, and tech companies are using Starlink in Ukraine, per The Post.

More than 5,000 Starlink satellite internet terminals from Elon Musk's SpaceX are now active in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

"We are using thousands, in the area of thousands, of terminals with new shipments arriving every other day," Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's vice prime minister, told The Post through a translator.

Fedorov didn't provide the exact number of delivered Starlink terminals, which connect to orbiting satellites, but a person familiar with Starlink's effort in Ukraine, who requested anonymity, told The Post there were over 5,000 in the country.

Fedorov told The Post that Starlink internet has proved "very effective" in Ukraine amid Russia's invasion, adding that "the quality of the link is excellent."

Musk said on February 27 that Starlink was activated in Ukraine and terminals were on their way to the country, a day after Fedorov asked the billionaire on Twitter to send the terminals.

Since March 1, Ukraine has received at least four shipments of Starlink terminals, according to tweets by Fedorov. The most recent delivery was on Friday, per Fedorov's tweet.

—Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 18, 2022

Starlink's network, which has over 2,100 satellites in orbit, is designed to operate in areas where connectivity is unreliable or completely unavailable, per the company's website.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment and declined to comment to The Post. Musk told The Post to give his regards "to your puppet master Besos," apparently referring to Jeff Bezos, the newspaper's owner, but didn't respond to questions about his efforts with Starlink.

The Post reported that civilians under attack without internet connection, government officials, and tech companies in Ukraine were the ones using Starlink in the country.

Starlink is helping an elite Ukrainian drone unit destroy Russian weaponry in the night, The Times of London reported.