Ukraine war briefing: Finland urges Elon Musk to expand Kyiv’s Starlink coverage over Russia

Ukraine believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target missile launchers. What we know on day 1,675 Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said he pleaded with SpaceX owner Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage for Ukraine so it can strike Russian ballistic missile launchers located inside Russian territory.

Ukraine has an acute shortage of air defences to repel Russian ballistic missiles and Kyiv believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target the launchers that fire the missiles. Musk switched on the Starlink satellite internet service over Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It has become the lifeblood of Ukraine’s battlefield communications and a tool for piloting drones, but it does not work over Russian territory.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with senior Wall Street executives on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York , as Kyiv seeks to attract investments to help finance the country’s rebuilding efforts. The meeting focused mainly on areas such as helping Ukraine get through the winter and supporting its economy, the Ukrainian government said. Ukraine faces a brutal winter as stepped-up Russian strikes on its infrastructure and key export industries deepen the country’s budget crisis.

The daily cost of the war grew to about $190m this year. The meeting, attended by more than two dozen US companies, was facilitated by US banking giant Citigroup...

Read the original report at The Guardian.