Berlin has been paying for Ukraine’s access to a satellite-internet network operated by France’s Eutelsat, as Europe seeks alternatives to Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Eutelsat’s chief executive Eva Berneke told Reuters the company has provided its high-speed satellite internet service to Ukraine for about a year via a German distributor.

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Berneke said it was funded by the German government, but declined to comment on the cost.

Berneke said there were fewer than a thousand terminals connecting users in Ukraine to Eutelsat’s network, which is a small fraction of the roughly 50,000 Starlink terminals Ukraine says it has, but she said she expected the figure would rise.

“Now we’re looking to get between 5,000 and 10,000 there relatively fast,” she said, adding it could be “within weeks”.

Asked whether Germany would also fund that additional provision, Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington said the issue was under discussion.

“We don’t know yet how the EU collectively or country by country will fund efforts going forward,” Darlington said.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s more hostile approach to Ukraine since his return to the White House has sparked concern in Europe about reliance on Starlink.

It is part of rocket company SpaceX, owned by tech billionaire Musk who is close to Trump. Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to Ukraine and its military in the war against Russia.

Eutelsat’s OneWeb division is Starlink’s main rival in providing high-speed internet satellite via low-Earth orbit satellites.

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