The French satellite group Eutelsat saw a significant rise in its stock price this week, due to the sudden criticism surrounding the restrictions on the use of Starshield in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, tensions between the United States and Ukraine escalated after Kiev accused Elon Musk's SpaceX of imposing new restrictions on its military-grade Starlink internet services without warning. The Ukrainian side stated that these restrictions weakened their connectivity and also limited Ukraine's ability to defend against Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the United States, stating that "the system was shut down in the middle of the night," which prevented Ukrainian drones from intercepting Russian attacks and ultimately led to civilian deaths.

Zelensky said, "They know what they have done. This is not just a matter of offense; it's also a matter of protecting lives... People are dying because the destruction is not sufficient, there are not enough interceptors, including those that use Starlink. They are not functioning."

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shifted the blame onto the U.S. government, stating that the Starshield system is controlled by Washington and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Affected by the situation in Ukraine, the stock price of Eutelsat rose by 19% on Friday, with a cumulative increase of 25% over the past five days.

Deutsche Bank analysts stated in a report on Thursday that the stock price movement of Eutelsat this week further proves the view of “supporting the sovereign value of European satellite networks.” The analysts said that the market regards Eutelsat as a “credible alternative to Starlink.”

However, they also pointed out: "Although we notice that Eutelsat does provide global low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation services, we believe that its scale is not sufficient to provide the same number of terminals as Starlink." They added, "We expect the stock price to revert some of its gains."

Eutelsat merged with satellite internet provider OneWeb in 2023, attempting to challenge the market dominance of Starlink. However, according to the websites of both companies, Eutelsat currently has over 600 satellites in orbit, while Starlink has more than 6,750.

Ukraine's Deputy Minister for Rehabilitation, Infrastructure, and Transport, Serhii Delkach, told CNBC on Friday that Russia is intensifying its attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure, taking advantage of the limited military applications to target bridges, railway networks, and border crossings.

Delkach said, "As the United States restricts the use of Starlink on the battlefield, Russia sees this as an opportunity to inflict more pain and suffering on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure."

He said, "There is no doubt that we are heading for some very difficult weeks and months, and now more than ever, we need the support of our partners." He added that Ukrainians are facing power outages that last 4 to 12 hours every day.