Posted on 02/09/2023 1:05:13 PM PST by NautiNurse
SpaceX says satellite communications service ‘never, never meant to be weaponised’
A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has reacted with anger after Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones, which are critical to Kyiv’s forces in fighting off the Russian invasion.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in the US that the surprise decision had been taken because it had never been the company’s intention to allow Starlink to be used “for offensive purposes”.
That prompted an immediate complaint on Thursday morning from Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, who argued that Musk’s business had failed to recognise Ukraine’s right to self-defence.
[Snip]
>Shortly after the start of the war, Musk, SpaceX’s founder, agreed to provide Starlink for nothing to Ukraine, in response to a plea made on Twitter by Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk said in reply.
Ukrainian forces use Starlink to help control their large network of surveillance drones, critical to monitor Russian troop concentrations and military movements, at a time when Moscow’s forces are on the attack across large parts of the eastern front.
[Snip]
“F**k off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” replied Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, prompting Musk to threaten to stop providing Starlink to Ukraine. Musk had said that providing Starlink was costly to SpaceX, although the US government pays at least some of the costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Musk:You FBI guys and leftists try to tell me how to run Twitter and attack me mercilessly...then I turn off Starlink to Ukraine...see how that works? Now if people start being nice to me...then maybe I will help Ukraine again!
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