Elon Musk has answered a plea from the vice prime minister of Ukraine who asked the tycoon to help the embattled nation with satellite internet access.  

'@elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,' the vice PM Mykhailo Fedorov wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

His plea came as part of Ukraine finds itself without any internet connection following three days of rocket attacks by Russia. 

Officials there are keen that locals remain connected so their stories can be used to combat Russian propaganda - and so that they can share atrocities being carried out by Russian troops on behalf of Vladimir Putin.  

On Saturday afternoon, Musk answered the call and said that he would be sending Starlink receivers to the country.

'Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,' Musk tweeted hours after the extraordinary request. 

Starlink is a space-based system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. 

Also on Saturday, Fedorov called on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix and Google to block Russia-related accounts. 

'We've also asked @Netflix for the support. We appealed to them to block the Russian Federation's access to Netflix and shut off Russian content. We believe you do care. Let's stop this disgraceful bloody war!' he tweeted.