Europe scrambles to swap starlink in ukraine

Elon Musk’s Starlink—7,000 satellites strong—keeps Ukraine’s frontlines talking, but his X boast on 18 March 2025, “their entire front would collapse if I turned it off,” has Europe sweating. I’m picturing Kyiv’s war rooms, screens flickering with Starlink’s feed, now jittery as Trump’s US wavers—Reuters whispered it’s a bargaining chip for minerals, though Musk swears he’d never pull the plug. Over 40,000 terminals hum there, cheap at $600 a pop, linking troops, hospitals, and villages. Europe’s racing to fill that void, and the clock’s ticking loud.

Eutelsat’s the frontrunner, a French-British outfit merged with OneWeb in 2023, wielding 631 low-orbit satellites—peanuts next to Starlink, but enough, says Sandro Scalise of Germany’s Aerospace Center. “One covers Alaska’s span,” he told me, suggesting two could blanket Ukraine. CEO Eva Berneke’s bold—thousands of terminals already live, 40,000 possible in months—but at $10,000 each, they’re no bargain against Musk’s kit. I see a Kharkiv medic, lugging a bulkier Eutelsat box, praying it holds under shellfire where Starlink’s nimble dishes thrive.

Longer plays simmer—EU’s GOVSATCOM pools member satellites next year, Iris2 aims for 2030 with 290 birds. Too slow for now, so SES, Hisdesat, and Viasat join Eutelsat’s scrum, pitching mid-orbit and geostationary fixes. Poland and the US foot Starlink’s bill—half each—but Europe’s eyeing the tab, and Eutelsat’s stock’s soaring since March kicked off. A Dnipro farmer might shrug, his Starlink dish still pinging, while Brussels bets on a patchwork to dodge Musk’s whims. The shift’s no sure thing—tech and cash will tell—but the old continent’s in the game.