Europe's Eutelsat to help replace Starlink in Ukraine?

EUTELSAT'S stock price has more than quadrupled since a public row on February 28 between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump, after which Washington paused military aid to Ukraine. Eutelsat already supports government and institutional communications in Ukraine, and told Reuters it can provide an alternative for certain government and defence applications. Here is a summary by Reuters of how Eutelsat might help Ukraine meet its communication needs.

Eutelsat OneWeb Form World’s 1st GEO-LEO Comms Operator.

Source: Orbital Today 29 Sep 2023

Space Security Conference: Negotiating European Space Sovereignty In The New World Order. Source: Orbital Today 10 Mar 2025 

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Report from Reuters
By Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk; 

Additional reporting by Michal Aleksandrowicz; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Dated Friday, 7 March 2025 6:36 PM GMT - full copy:

Explainer: Could Europe's Eutelsat help to replace Starlink in Ukraine?

The logo of the European satellite operator Eutelsat is pictured at the company's headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, August 17, 2022. Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

STOCKHOLM/GDANSK, March 5 (Reuters) - Suggestions that Ukraine could lose access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, which has been vital in maintaining its military communications as it fights Russia's invasion, have focused investor interest on Starlink's smaller European rival Eutelsat (ETL.PA).

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Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that the United States might use Starlink access as a lever in talks with Kyiv about its critical minerals, and the Franco-British company has said it is talking to the EU about providing additional services to Ukraine.

Eutelsat's stock price has more than quadrupled since a public row on February 28 between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump, after which Washington paused military aid to Ukraine.

Here is a summary of how Eutelsat might help Ukraine to meet its communication needs:

HOW CRUCIAL IS STARLINK TO UKRAINE?

Starlink users access the internet for data or voice communication by using a small satellite dish to bounce signals off a constellation of satellites overhead.

Ukraine's fixed-line and mobile networks have been badly damaged by bombing since Russia invaded in February 2022, and Starlink has helped Kyiv to fill the void by sending tens of thousands of its dishes with terminals.

Some are made available to civilians, often trying to contact relatives on smartphones.

But most are used by Ukraine's armed forces, which also have to contend with heavy signal jamming and interception of communications on the front lines. Ukrainian units often talk to each other via Starlink, and its services have become virtually indispensable for battlefield command and control.

Ukraine also used Starlink to guide attack drones until Musk's rocket firm SpaceX curbed the practice two years ago.

Originally, SpaceX helped to fund provision of Starlink to Ukraine. The U.S. government then took over, though last month Poland said it had been paying Ukraine's Starlink subscription and would continue to do so.

HOW DOES EUTELSAT COMPARE TO STARLINK?

Eutelsat already supports government and institutional communications in Ukraine, and told Reuters that it can provide an alternative for certain government and defence applications.

Since its merger in 2023 with Britain's OneWeb, Eutelsat controls the only operational global-coverage constellation, besides Starlink, of satellites in low earth orbit (LEO).

Starlink's more than 7,000 LEO satellites, suited to real-time communication, allow it to reach more users around the world and offer higher data speeds.

But Eutelsat says that, even with only 630 or so LEO satellites, backed up by 35 linked satellites in higher, geostationary orbit, it offers the same capabilities as Starlink in Europe.

Starlink promises broadband at up to 200 megabits per second, Eutelsat 150.

OneWeb terminals, however, cost as much as $10,000, plus a monthly subscription price. Starlink charges Ukrainian users a one-time payment of $589 in addition to a monthly subscription of $95-$440, depending on the usage.

It is not known whether any donor would offer to fund more Ukrainian OneWeb subscriptions. France and Britain, which are spearheading a peace deal to present to the U.S., hold a combined 24.8% stake in Eutelsat Group.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVES?

Global competition to Starlink is shaping up, but slowly.

Luxembourg-based SES (SESFg.LU) delivers some satellite services to the Western NATO defence alliance via its medium earth orbit constellation of O3b mPOWER satellites.

But like many other legacy satellite operators, it prioritises corporate customers, governments and militaries, offering no direct-to-consumer services, with terminals that are not consumer-friendly.

Some EU initiatives such as IRIS² (pronounced 'Iris squared') and GOVSATCOM - which Kyiv is interested in - will take years to become fully operational.

(This story has been corrected to say 'sources familiar with the matter,' not 'negotiators,' in paragraph 2)

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View original and video (02:56 min) here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/could-europes-eutelsat-help-replace-starlink-ukraine-2025-03-05/

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Related

From Times of India

Dated 11 March 2025

How and why Elon Musk's public spat with Poland FM led to almost 400% jump in stock price of Europe's Starlink rival

Eutelsat's stock skyrocketed nearly 390% last week due to speculation it may replace SpaceX's Starlink in Ukraine. The French satellite company is exploring an expanded role in Ukraine and is negotiating with the EU to bolster internet services. ... Eutelsat, Europe's rival to Elon Musk's Starlink, has seen ...

Full story: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/118888047.cms

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Europe's Ariane 6 commercial rocket launch today boosts Europe's access to space, cuts SpaceX reliance

EUROPE moves to cut SpaceX reliance with first commercial launch of Ariane 6 today carrying French military observation satellite. The launch bolsters Europe's access to space. See video and two reports below.

Report from Reuters online

By Tim Hepher; Editing by Toby Chopra

Published 6 March 2025 - full copy:

Europe's Ariane 6 stages first commercial launch

(Reuters) - Europe's newest uncrewed heavy launcher blasted off on a delayed mission to carry a French military observation satellite towards orbit on Thursday in its first commercially operational launch.

The Ariane 6 rocket lifted from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:24 p.m. local time (1624 GMT), live webcast images showed, following two earlier postponements.

View original: 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/europes-ariane-6-stages-first-163328647.html

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Report from The Next Web online

Published 6 March 2025 - excerpt:

Europe moves to cut SpaceX reliance with Ariane 6 launch today

The first commercial launch of Ariane 6 bolsters Europe's access to space

Caption: "New launch date for CSO-3. The investigations carried out on the ground means interfacing with the launcher, following the launch attempt on March 3, now enable Arianespace to target a launch on March 6, 2025, at 1:24 p.m. local time in Kourou, French Guiana (4:24 p.m. UTC, 5:24 p.m. CET). Ariane 6 and its passenger, the CSO-3 satellite, are in stable and safe conditions."

Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Europe has been unable to access Soyuz rockets. Meanwhile, the retirement of the Ariane 5 in 2023 and delays to the new Vega-C small-launch vehicle left the continent without independent access to space. Europe was forced to rely on Elon Musk’s SpaceX for over a year. 

Read more: https://thenextweb.com/news/europe-to-cut-spacex-reliance-with-ariane-6-launch

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Sudan: Thousands could die as the RSF Janjaweed militia close in on North Darfur's capital city Al-Fashir

SOME 800,000 in North Darfur's capital city Al-Fashir have no escape route from incoming attacks by Hemeti's Rapid Support Forces' Janjaweed militia as violence in Sudan spreads. Al-Fashir is the last major city in the huge western Darfur region not yet under control of the RSF which has taken control of four other Darfur state capitals over the past year. 700,000 IDPs fled to camps in Al-Fashir to escape violence in other regions. Read more.

From The New Arab (London) www.newarab.com
Dated Friday, 26 April, 2024 - here is a copy of its report in full:

Thousands could die as Rapid Support Forces close in Al-Fashir in Sudan's Darfur province

Some 800,000 people inside Al-Fashir city have no escape route from incoming attacks by the Rapid Support Forces' Janjaweed as violence in Sudan spreads.

Photo: Rival military groups have uprooted millions in Sudan and left the country in a dangerous humanitarian crisis [Getty]

The capital of the Sudanese state North Darfur is facing an imminent catastrophe that is threatening some 800,000 people, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) closes in on the last stronghold of rival Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) following weeks of battles.

Sudanese activists and international researchers warned on Thursday that the city of Al-Fashir is "about to be under siege" as the RSF gains ground in the surrounding province, terrorising villages and conducting intense bombing campaigns against the Sudanese army.

RSF is attempting to gain control of the city from the SAF and have begun closing in with its troops preparing for a full-scale invasion, according to researchers.

Al-Fashir is the last major city in the huge western Darfur region not yet under the control of the RSF which has taken control of four other Darfur state capitals over the past year. Some 700,000 internally displaced people fled to camps in Al-Fashir having escaped violence in other regions.

The latest round of violence began in the African country in April 2023 and snowballed into a civil war when long-simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.

The RSF has been blamed for mass killings of civilians - which are often ethnically driven - and numerous human rights violation, including terrifying levels of sexual violence.

The war has uprooted swathes of the population and humanitarian workers have described the conditions as among the worst in the world.

The UN said that some 20 million people in Sudan are struggling to find enough food to eat and that famine is now widespread.

Last week, UN officials warned the Security Council that 800,000 people in Al-Fashir were in "extreme and immediate danger" as fighting was moving closer. 

[HERE is a copy of a post at X by Radio Dabanga English 5:42PM April 25, 2024: "Refugees International warns of imminent #RSF attacks on #El Fasher in #NorthDarfur, home to 800,000 civilians. Immediate action needed #SudanNews #KeepEyesOnSudan #sudan_war_updates"]

Refugees International warns of imminent #RSF attacks on #El Fasher in #NorthDarfur, home to 800,000 civilians. Immediate action needed #SudanNews #KeepEyesOnSudan #sudan_war_updates https://t.co/ZheRag22iH

— Radio Dabanga (@RadioDabanga) April 25, 2024

There are fears fighting in the city could trigger inter-communal violence throughout the Darfur province which surfaced during conflicts in the 2000s, and could spill into neighbouring Chad.

Adam Mousa, director of Darfur Victims Support and Sudan Defenders, said that in April the RSF and aligned Arab militias fought with the Sudanese army and attacked 15 villages in the east of Darfur, forcing thousands to flee to al-Shagra town and the Zamzam displacement camp in Al-Fashir.

"Most of the displaced have no water, food or medicine, and at the same time the attacks are continuing," Mousa said during an online media briefing on Thursday which included activists, Sudanese civilians, researchers, and aid workers.

Mousa, who is from Darfur, said his organisation has requested to begin a ceasefire initiative and sent letters to SAF and RSF and are "waiting for a response".

Some eleven villages there have been burnt in recent days, according to Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health.

It has been challenging for journalists and humanitarians to gain on the ground access since the outbreak of war and as a result, observers have been relying on open-source intelligence to track the conflict.

Raymond's Humanitarian Research Lab has been closely documenting the RSF and SAF movements using open-source data and satellite imagery, and last week sounded the alarm to the international community about RSF’s imminent attack on Al-Fashir.

"We have a city about to be under siege," Raymond said.

RSF fighters are about eight kilometres from the main SAF infantry base and open-source reports and imagery collected in the past day shows RSF fighters moving on the city from multiple directions, Raymond explained.

"The situation for those in Al-Fashir will likely get significantly worse in the coming hours and days," he said.

"At this point, civilians and the Sudan Armed Forces do not have a clear escape route to exit Al Fashir. We call this phenomenon, in our business, a kill box.

"The space for intervention is probably gone," he added.

Raymond fears that if the RSF behave in line with the mass atrocities conducted over the past year, the number of casualties in the region could exceed the 110,000 deaths of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

It is estimated that some 14,000 people have been killed in the war since last April, though some projections are far larger.

The RSF, which is formed of Janjaweed fighters aligned with former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, have conducted ruthless campaigns against civilians and there are fears they will conduct massacres in Al-Fashir.

There have been widespread human rights violations documented by RSF fighters, including cases of sexual violence against women and girls.

Allegations of rape, forced marriage, sex trafficking in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan have been recorded. Rights groups say the truce scale of the crisis remains unknown due to underreporting and fear of reprisals.

Some 1.1 million people are internally displaced in Sudan while more than 3 million are refugees in neighbouring Chad, Eritrea and Egypt, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.

Hala Al-Karib, Sudan Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, said that the anticipated invasion of Al-Fashir has been a "ticking time bomb" considering the number of local militias present in the city.

She said the city has been an important hub for activists and human rights defenders and hosts many displaced families. The only hospital in Sudan for survivors of sexual violence is in the city, Al-Karib said.

The war has taken a spiral in recent months due to foreign interference, which observers say has prolonged the conflict and fuelled new levels of danger.

RSF's leader is reportedly receiving support from Russian mercenaries and allied Arab communities coming from the Horn of Africa, as well as Libya.

US officials recently said the UAE was providing financial and military support to RSF, which has been accused of committing crimes against humanity. Iran and Egypt are believed to be supporting Sudan's army with military drones.

Earlier this month, France hosted a donor aid conference to mark one year since the outbreak of war and garner much needed attention to the humanitarian disaster.

Western officials  are seeking an end to the fighting through diplomacy, but critics say it has done little to defuse the violence.

View original: https://www.newarab.com/news/mass-casualties-feared-rsf-encircles-sudans-al-fashir

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Related

Sudan Watch - February 28, 2020 

Sudan: RSF to turn Zurrug, N Darfur into a dream city

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-rsf-to-turn-zurrug-n-darfur-into.html

Sudan Watch - March 02, 2024

Sudan: In Zamzam camp, North Darfur, the death rate is catastrophic. At least 1 child dies every 2 hours

Malnutrition and disease are rife at the ‘overwhelmed’ Zamzam camp, a host to 300,000 internally displaced people, one of hundreds in Sudan, where war has displaced nearly 8 million people. The scale is simply terrifying. Zamzam is just one camp. There are hundreds of others in Sudan. 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/sudan-in-zamzam-camp-north-darfur-death.html

Sudan Watch - March 13, 2024

Sudan: 3.9M people food insecure in Khartoum state. 

Khartoum's partly a ghost town, only 20-30% remain

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/sudan-39m-people-food-insecure-in.html

Sudan Watch - March 14, 2024

South Sudan Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala: Our people ‘on brink of destitution, slowly perishing’

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/south-sudan-bishop-eduardo-hiiboro.html

Sudan Watch - March 17, 2024

Ali Karti, SG of Sudan’s Islamic Movement, widely seen as a mastermind of Sudan's war, has now announced a truce with RSF will never be accepted

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/ali-karti-sg-of-sudans-islamic-movement.html

Sudan Watch - March 29, 2024

UK CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN. 

UK doubles its aid to Sudan to £89m as crisis escalates

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/uk-channel-4-news-video-from-chad-sudan.html

Sudan Watch - April 06, 2024

SAVE SUDAN. STOP WAR IN SUDAN. 

Tagadum coalition unveils vision to end war and rebuild state

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/save-sudan-stop-war-in-sudan-tagadum.html

Sudan Watch - April 21, 2024

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT: 

Situation in Sudan ‘probably the most disastrous in the world’ says ex-PM Hamdok

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/video-transcript-situation-in-sudan.html

Sudan Watch - April 22, 2024

Sudan: SpaceX to shut off Starlink access for users outside availability areas by 30 April 2024

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/sudan-spacex-to-shut-off-starlink.html

Sudan Watch - April 24, 2024

Sudan: Displacement and recent clashes in North Darfur, Apr 01 - Apr 17 2024 & Apr 14 - Apr 16 2024

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/sudan-displacement-and-recent-clashes.html

CSIS - April 25, 2024

By Cameron Hudson 

Preventing Another Darfur Genocide

https://www.csis.org/analysis/preventing-another-darfur-genocide

Radio Dabanga - April 25, 2024

Int’l NGO: ‘UNSC needs to urgently intervene in North Darfur’

Refugees International, a prominent INGO, issued a grave warning on Tuesday indicating that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are about to launch imminent attacks on the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, home to 800,000 civilians, which requires urgent action.

https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/intl-ngo-unsc-needs-to-urgently-intervene-in-north-darfur

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