Kallas says Europe cannot replace Starlink for Ukraine in the near term

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe cannot provide Ukraine with a replacement for the Starlink satellite system in the short term.

Kallas spoke on October 16 before the second day of the EU summit in Brussels. She described Starlink as essential to Ukraine and said the European Defence Agency had identified critical capabilities the EU itself lacks. She called for those gaps to be addressed as quickly as possible.

At an October 14 briefing, European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said talks were under way on Ukraine's full association with GOVSATCOM. The system pools existing satellite resources from EU member states and began operating in January 2026.

Under the Commission's plan, commercial satellite services could be added to GOVSATCOM in early 2027. The Commission declined to claim that these would fully replace Starlink or Starshield.

Regnier also said the IRIS² constellation of more than 300 satellites was expected to become fully operational in 2029.