What the Apps Ukrainians Are Downloading Tell Us About Their Situation

Staying connected to make sure the truth doesn’t stop at the border

At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, asked Elon Musk to send Starlink satellite transmission equipment, which Musk agreed to, later sending more and opening up the satellite coverage over the country. A key request for a Ukrainian government characterized by the presence not only of Fedorov himself, 31 years old and the founder of a digital marketing startup, but also of other young people well-versed in the use of communication technologies.

As a result of the installation of this communications equipment, which, as Musk himself warned, must be used carefully to avoid becoming a target for attacks, the Starlink application that allows connection to these antennas to obtain coverage on mobile devices has become the most downloaded app in Ukraine, given the widespread destruction of infrastructure and the obvious difficulty of achieving connectivity by other means.

For someone like me, who belongs to a generation of Spaniards that has never lived through war, the idea of being subjected overnight to a situation that requires new apps for a matter of survival is hard to imagine. In…