Musk Took Outcome Of War In Ukraine Into His Own Hands

On September 30, 2022, nan Ukrainian service was poised to people a monolithic subject triumph against Russia, but reportedly fearing a Russian atomic retaliation, Elon Musk decided to find nan result of nan conflict.

On that day, Musk allegedly ordered his unit astatine Starlink to unopen down net services successful parts of Ukraine arsenic its troops mounted a important counteroffensive conscionable months aft nan Russian penetration began. 

Musk’s bid led to a subject communications blackout successful Ukraine, causing their onslaught to fail, arsenic their troops attempted to regain Kherson successful September 2022, according to Reuters, who said pinch 3 group acquainted pinch nan command.

‘Musk feared a Russian atomic retaliation’

The bid severely undermined Kyiv’s spot successful Starlink, nan outer net work Musk provided early successful nan warfare to thief Ukraine’s subject support relationship connected nan battlefield. 

“The 3 group acquainted pinch nan bid said they believed it stemmed from concerns Musk expressed later that Ukrainian advances could provoke atomic retaliation from Russia,” Reuters asserted.

Several elder U.S. officials shared Musk’s concerns that Russia would travel done connected its threats to escalate and edifice to atomic weapons, 1 erstwhile White House staffer told Reuters.

“Musk’s bid was an early glimpse of nan powerfulness nan magnate now wields successful geopolitics and world information because of Starlink, a fast-growing outer net work that hardly existed early this decade and now provides connectivity moreover successful distant areas of nan world,” Reuters said.

Musk’s excessive power and power

Even earlier his little domiciled arsenic financial backer and advisor to US President Donald Trump, nan occurrence of Starlink – and nan unrivalled connectivity it offers crossed nan satellite – had fixed Musk expanding power pinch governmental leaders, governments and militaries worldwide, nan British news agency added.

Several US regulators and lawmakers are highly concerned astir Musk’s power successful subject affairs successful Washington and beyond, owed to Starlink’s power successful outer communications and SpaceX’s clout successful abstraction launches. Musk presently possesses definite powers that were antecedently exclusive to sovereign governments, arsenic noted by Reuters.

“Elon Musk’s existent world power exemplifies nan dangers of concentrated powerfulness successful unregulated domains,” Martha Lane Fox, a personnel of Britain’s precocious location of parliament, said during a statement earlier this year. The parliamentarian is simply a businesswoman and erstwhile committee personnel astatine Twitter, nan societal media tract that Musk acquired successful 2022 and rebranded arsenic X.

“Its control,” Lane Fox said of Starlink, “rests solely pinch Musk, allowing his whims to dictate entree to captious infrastructure.”

He interfered successful Crimea arsenic well

In his 2023 curriculum vitae of Musk, writer Walter Isaacson wrote that nan world’s wealthiest and 1 of nan astir influential persons had ordered Starlink to disable sum successful Crimea, which Russia had annexed from Ukraine aft a 2014 invasion.

Isaacson said Musk believed a planned Ukrainian onslaught connected Russian vessels successful nan Crimean larboard of Sevastopol could punctual atomic retaliation.