Elon Musk refused the request of the Armed Forces to turn on Starlink in the area of occupied Crimea
US is buying 400 to 500 Starlink terminals for Ukraine 🇺🇦 which Elon Musk will not be able to disable.
The US Department of Defense will purchase a batch of 400-500 Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The deal is intended to provide Ukraine with dedicated terminals/services to conduct operations without fearing Musk turning off the signal.
They also talked about Elon Musk.
General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology made by Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, three people with knowledge of the conversation said. Ukraine’s battlefield decisions depended on the continued use of Starlink for communications, General Zaluzhnyi said, and his country wanted to ensure access and discuss how to cover the cost of the service.
General Zaluzhnyi also asked if the United States had an assessment of Mr. Musk, who has sprawling business interests and murky politics — to which American officials gave no answer.
Mr. Musk, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, has become the most dominant player in space as he has steadily amassed power over the strategically significant field of satellite internet. Yet faced with little regulation and oversight, his erratic and personality-driven style has increasingly worried militaries and political leaders around the world, with the tech billionaire sometimes wielding his authority in unpredictable ways.
