Mr. Brooke has traveled to about 100 countries reporting for the New York Times, Bloomberg, and Voice of America. He reported from Russia for eight years and from Ukraine for six years, coming home in 2021.

The challenge is that Russia has China’s industrial backing, allowing it to scale more effectively than Ukraine. China produces 80 percent of the world’s fiber-optic supply. Russia has far more state finances to allow the purchasing of these supplies, while Ukraine still heavily relies on volunteers to drive some of these efforts .