WARSAW: Poland’s government said Monday it is financing the operation of 20,000 Starlink internet devices in Ukraine – an essential network for the country’s military communications as it fights off Russia’s invasion.

“We have today more than 20,000 Starlink, the operation of which is financed by Poland,” Poland’s Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said during a visit to Kyiv, quoted by agency PAP.

“Starlink gives its support to the Ukrainian army, but also to hospitals,” he stressed.

Elon Musk says Starlink network in Ukraine has not received US funding

Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that can provide internet to remote locations, or areas that have had normal communications infrastructure disabled.

However, relations between Ukraine and Musk have been complicated for several months.

Last year Musk rejected a request to activate the network in the Crimean city of Sevastopol to support a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s naval fleet.

He said SpaceX would have been “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” had he agreed.

Also last year he said his company could not indefinitely fund the service in Ukraine, before agreeing to maintain the connections.