Elon Musk says he withheld Starlink over Crimea to avoid escalation
Elon Musk says he withheld Starlink over Crimea to avoid escalation
A senior Ukrainian official says this enabled Russian attacks and accuses him of "committing evil".
A senior Ukrainian official says this enabled Russian attacks and accuses him of "committing evil".
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This story is getting a lot of play, seems like someone in the defense industry is pushing it hard.
Giving Starlink away for free as a humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine makes a lot of sense, it's the right thing to do and good PR for Space X.
Using Starlink for military operations also makes a lot of sense, if you need it, they are building out "Starshield" services for just that purpose but it's not what the current network was designed for and it's hard to get the appropriate licenses in a war zone.
As for asking for someone to pay for the service: nobody is giving away military hardware for free, it's all on lend-lease agreements that Ukraine will eventually have to repay over time (the UK only recently finished paying their WWII bills to the US on similar agreements).
That's a lot of word gymnastics for saying "he can change the deal whenever he feels like it". Even if it's pro-bono.
Look at it this way: Elon lives in the west. The west is tasked with promoting and supporting democracies and opposing autocracy.
Especially if the service in question was paid for by subsidies.
We know that DoD is paying for Starlink service in Ukraine, but there are no public details of the contract. Not sure how paying for a service is a subsidy.
"Opposing Autocracy" is an interesting choice of words, since everyone who's up in arms about this is implying that the government should force a private company to participate in any war on whatever terms they dictate. Freedom isn't easy, sometimes people and companies do stuff you don't like, but I we want a working democracy you have to give them that liberty or else loose your own eventually.
The law notes that fighting for an enemy engaging in hostilities v the United States is treason. If (and its a big if) we found Russia was engaging in hostilities v us, fighting on the opposite side would potentially apply.