Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is building its own satellite system intended as an analogue of Starlink, the low-Earth-orbit broadband network operated by SpaceX, in remarks to journalists on Sunday, October 4. He gave no details of the project, according to Mezha, the Ukrainian technology news outlet that reported the comments.
“We are working on a system similar to Starlink.”
— Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by Mezha, October 4
That sentence, plus a claim that progress has been made, is the entire disclosure: no constellation size, orbit, manufacturer, launch provider, cost or date. Mezha adds that Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s partners for technologies already in use and had previously signalled a need to expand the programme, without naming either the partners or the programme.
In the same remarks he said Ukraine would like to be able to use Starlink satellite communications to strike Russia, and warned that Russia may soon gain comparable capabilities with help from other countries. China, he said, continues to provide important support to Moscow.
For satellite internet watchers
Nothing in the report suggests the Ukrainian system is meant to sell residential or business connectivity. Officials are treating satellites as a targeting and communications problem rather than a consumer broadband market, which puts the project in the same bracket as vendor and government plans for sovereign satellite communications to reduce reliance on Starlink — announced capability first, hardware later.
The Rassvet warning, and a date that does not fit
According to media reports cited by Mezha, Zelensky asked US President Donald Trump to sanction Russian and Chinese companies developing satellites that could become an analogue of Starlink, and those reports say China is helping Russia build a network called Rassvet. Kyiv has separately asked Washington to sanction Rassvet.
Denys Senik, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in the United States, confirmed that Russia plans to launch Rassvet in 2027. The same report then has Senik warning that if the system is deployed by the end of this year, Russia will be able to guide missiles and drones at Ukrainian targets in real time. Read literally, the two cannot describe the same milestone. The likeliest explanation is a compressed summary of two separate points — a 2027 launch plan and an earlier, partial capability — rather than a reversal, but the report does not say so. Until that is clarified, 2027 is the only figure here attributed directly to a named official, and it is the one we are using.
Access, not hardware
The request to use Starlink for strikes on Russia is a question of permitted use, not coverage. Starlink is a commercial service and SpaceX sets the terms; no agreement by the company, the US government or any other party is recorded. The remarks follow a run of Ukrainian statements in which Kyiv has tied its Starlink requests to a sanctions push aimed at the firms behind Russia’s satellite plans — build a domestic analogue, and in the meantime widen what can be done with the foreign systems already in the field.
How solid is this?
One outlet, one set of unscripted remarks to journalists. Mezha cites no official transcript, and its two most consequential claims — the sanctions request to Trump and Chinese involvement in Rassvet — are sourced not to the president directly but to other media reports. No statement from SpaceX, from the US government or from Ukraine’s own Ministry of Digital Transformation appears anywhere in the account. On the evidence currently public, Ukraine’s Starlink analogue is a single sentence from a head of state; a government document, a launch contract or a spectrum filing would make it something more. We will update this story if one appears, or if SpaceX or US authorities comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
When could Ukraine’s system be operational?
No date has been attached to it by anyone. A low-Earth-orbit constellation normally leaves a paper trail — launch contracts, manufacturer agreements, spectrum filings — and none of those appear in the public record for this project yet.
Is Ukraine stepping away from Starlink?
The opposite, on the face of it: in the same set of remarks Zelensky asked to be able to do more with Starlink, not less, and thanked partners for technologies already deployed.
Who is Denys Senik, and why does his statement matter?
He is Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in the United States, and the only official besides Zelensky named in the report. He is also the sole attributed source for the 2027 Rassvet launch date, which makes his account the load-bearing one for the Russian half of the story.
Have SpaceX or the US government responded?
No response from SpaceX, the White House or any US agency appears in the source material, and none has surfaced since. Starlink’s terms of use are set by the company, so any change to how Ukraine may use the service would have to come from SpaceX or be negotiated with Washington.
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