Ukraine confident Poland will keep funding Starlink at the front

By Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's deputy prime minister said he was confident of a solution to continue Poland's funding of 30,000 Starlink internet systems for Ukraine, after Poland said it might no longer be able to pay for them following a presidential veto.

Poland is the biggest donor of SpaceX's satellite internet devices to Ukraine. Kyiv uses tens of thousands of them across the frontline as a crucial communication tool resistant to hacking and jamming.

Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine's digitalisation minister, told Reuters in an interview that while Ukraine also had other satellite communication systems, none could match the scale and cost of Starlink, operated by Elon Musk's rocket company.

"We are communicating with our colleagues and I'm sure that all will be well, that we will find a solution to continue supporting this project," he said.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Monday vetoed a bill extending state financial support provided to Ukrainian refugees and unveiled plans to limit their future access to child benefits and healthcare.

Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the vetoed legislation also provided the legal basis for providing Starlink to Ukraine.

Nawrocki's spokesperson told Reuters that the basis for paying for Starlink could still be restored if parliament adopts a bill proposed by the president by the end of next month.

Starlink systems have suffered several outages affecting military operations in Ukraine, both as a result of technical issues and deliberate decisions by Musk to restrict Ukrainian operations.

Fedorov said Ukraine was developing an "internal network" to ensure the existence of backup options in the event of a Starlink outage.

"Technical failures should not bring down the front line or any important sphere of activity. That is why we must always have options B, C, D, and so on," he said.

(Reporting by Max HunderEditing by Peter Graff)