Shares in French satellite company Eutelsat surged amid controversy over SpaceX restricting military communications for Ukraine. CNBC reported on Oct. 16 that Eutelsat shares rose 19 percent on the day and gained 25 percent over the past five days.

The controversy grew after Ukraine criticised SpaceX for imposing new restrictions on its military Starlink internet service without notice. Ukraine said the measure weakened connectivity and constrained its ability to defend against Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (볼로디미르 젤렌스키) criticised Starlink for shutting off in the middle of the night. He said the outage kept Ukrainian drones from intercepting Russian attacks and ultimately led to civilian deaths.

Elon Musk (일론 머스크), SpaceX's chief executive, shifted responsibility to the U.S. government. He said the Starshield system is under the control of Washington and U.S. President Donald Trump (도널드 트럼프).

Markets focused on Eutelsat as an alternative to Starlink. Deutsche Bank said in a memo on Oct. 15 that Eutelsat's share moves this week support the sovereign value of a European satellite network. It added that even with a global low-Earth orbit constellation, Eutelsat is not large enough to provide the number of terminals Starlink can supply. It also said the stock could give back some of its recent sharp gains.

Eutelsat has challenged Starlink's market dominance since integrating with satellite internet company OneWeb in 2023. Eutelsat has more than 600 satellites in orbit, compared with more than 6,750 for Starlink.

Ukraine said damage to civilian infrastructure is also worsening. Serhiy Derkach (세르히 데르카흐), Ukraine's deputy minister for recovery, infrastructure and transport, said Russia is exploiting the restrictions on military use to intensify attacks on bridges, rail networks and border crossing points. He said the coming weeks and months will be very harsh and partners' support is needed more than ever. Ukraine is already experiencing daily power outages lasting 4 to 12 hours.