In an interview with Politico on Monday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis disclosed the plans, which are at an early stage.
The plans come as a follow-up to a warning from Musk that SpaceX would not continue paying for the terminals. He also suggested that the United States government should chip in. On Saturday, Musk said he changed his mind and his company would continue to fund Internet access via Starlink terminals in Ukraine, even though it “continues to lose money while other companies get billions of dollars in taxpayer money.”
But, Politico reported, the terminals have played a crucial role in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces in occupied territories, and turned out to be the only way for some residents to retain Internet connectivity.
In the interview with Politico, Landsbergis said Ukraine's access to telecommunication services should not be condemned to the whims of a single “super-powerful” person, who could “wake up one day and say, ‘This is no longer what I feel like doing and this is it.’ And the next day, Ukrainians might find themselves without the internet.”
“I figured that it's probably way better to have this as a contractual agreement between, let's say, a coalition of countries that could purchase a service from Mr. Musk, the Starlink service, and provide it to the Ukrainians and keep on providing it to Ukrainians,” Landsbergis added.
According to Politico, the issue allegedly made it into the discussion at the meeting of the 27 European Union foreign ministers on Monday.
(jh)
Source: Politico
