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France's Eutelsat Unable to Grant Ukraine Full Communications Access - CEO

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - French satellite operator Eutelsat will not be able to provide full access to communications in Ukraine in the event of a possible withdrawal of the US communication system Starlink, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said.

"If we were to take over the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all the citizens, we wouldn't be able to do that. Let's just be very honest," Berneke said in an interview with Politico out on Monday, adding however that Eutelsat would be able to provide capacity "for some of the critical use cases of government."

In early March, the Financial Times newspaper reported that Luxembourg-based SES, Spain's Hisdesat and the US-based Viasat satellite operators were discussing with the European Union and European authorities the provision of communication resources to Kiev in the event of possible withdrawal of Starlink.

On March 4, European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said that if Starlink were to withdraw from Ukraine, the EU could potentially offer similar services to Kiev by 2030.