Ukraine’s leading mobile operator Kyivstar has signed an agreement with Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, to provide a direct mobile phone connection via satellite. Kyivstar’s parent company VEON announced this cooperation on Monday. This cooperation with Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, is of great importance for Ukraine’s digital communication infrastructure.

Starlink DTC is now in Ukraine

Under this agreement, Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell service via satellite will be available to Kyivstar customers in the fourth quarter of 2025 with SMS and OTT messaging functionality. Voice communications and data services are planned to be added in future phases.

VEON Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu emphasised that with this partnership, Ukraine will become one of the world’s leading countries in connection resilience. Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov stated that this technology is an important step towards realising the company’s goal of ‘LTE everywhere’.

Starlink, as it is known, is a service that provides satellite-based internet service with a fixed or mobile installation. However, with the number of Starlink DTC-enabled satellites now exceeding 340, it is possible to connect to satellites with smartphones only, without the need for such an installation. These modems act as a base station, transmitting phone signals from space directly to smartphones. Thanks to new satellite technology, customers will be able to benefit from the power of satellite-enabled connectivity, even in areas not served by terrestrial networks.

Starlink DTC is expanding to more and more countries

Starlink began launching its first satellites earlier this year, providing direct mobile phone connectivity. Starlink has signed agreements with eight different countries, including the US, Japan and New Zealand, and has identified Ukraine as the first conflict zone where it will offer this technology. Starlink recently launched the DTC service in beta use in the US and New Zealand.

Starlink’s internet connectivity provides critical infrastructure for both the people and the military of Ukraine, which is at war. However, this has led Russia to step up its efforts to intercept signals between Starlink satellites and ground terminals since 2022.

Although the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the strengthening of Starlink’s presence in Ukraine once again reveals Elon Musk’s strategic role in the region. According to Axios, Musk attended a meeting between the new US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in November and stated that he would continue to provide Starlink services to Ukraine.