Ukraine officials in direct negotiations with Musk about Starlink
According to the Ukraine’s defense minister, they are now conducting direct negotiations with Elon Musk concerning the cost of using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation as part of its war against Russia.
In an interview, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said “I know that we will not have a problem” keeping the service active, citing the “personal communication” between Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Musk.
Fedorov “is responsible for the digitalization and he has a direct connection with Elon Musk. They have a personal communication, and Mykhailo was really positive” about the situation in their last discussion of the issue, Reznikov said.
I suspect that at some point, the Ukraine will start paying SpaceX some money out of the $20 million per month Musk says it costs. And it will likely draw the cash for those payments from the approximately $50 billion the U.S. has sent it in aid.
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According to the Ukraine’s defense minister, they are now conducting direct negotiations with Elon Musk concerning the cost of using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation as part of its war against Russia.
In an interview, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said “I know that we will not have a problem” keeping the service active, citing the “personal communication” between Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Musk.
Fedorov “is responsible for the digitalization and he has a direct connection with Elon Musk. They have a personal communication, and Mykhailo was really positive” about the situation in their last discussion of the issue, Reznikov said.
I suspect that at some point, the Ukraine will start paying SpaceX some money out of the $20 million per month Musk says it costs. And it will likely draw the cash for those payments from the approximately $50 billion the U.S. has sent it in aid.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Supposedly, the Biden administration is in talks with Musk about providing Starlink access to Iran’s citizenry, since that gov’t has shut down most internet access during the current uprising. If this is true, it’s a substantial turn from the anti-anything-Elon policies they’ve exhibited. How easily it could be implemented on the ground there, well that’s a hurdle.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/21/politics/white-house-musk-starlink-iran-protests-ukraine/index.html
The CNN article seems to imply without directly saying so that the US govt was involved in the provision of Starlink to Ukraine. I do not think this was the case.
The article also seems to indicate that the nuclear treaty with Iran is off the table. I am also skeptical of that, given the high priority that seems to have been given to undoing Trump’s cancellation of the treaty. But any support for Iranian rebels would certainly put paid to any treaty.
Both these developments seem to indicate a desperate White House desire to get in front of something seen as positive… something more substantial than a strawberry ice cream cone.
@Ray The implication is that US military helicopters and other logistical support was used to fly the receivers into a war zone as fedex was not available.
And yes the current administration really hates Elon.
I feel sorry for Musk. I really do. I do not believe he really had any kind of in depth clue as to what he was getting connected to when he made his initial Starlink Donation to Ukraine.
He really believes he was “doing a good deed”. And I agree with that. But in the end this fight is between the “Aggressors” and the “Aggrieved”, not good guys and bad guys.
In the long run the rolls of Aggressor and Aggrieved in that war could swap out at a moments notice. Then what of “good deeds”? Will it still be a “good deed” to enable Ukraine to out and out invade Russia, to make an all out assault on Moscow itself? I mean we in The West don’t reckon the geography over there much. It is less than 400 miles from Ukraine’s Northern Border to the outskirts of Moscow.
What does The West do, when their aid to Ukraine has not really raised Ukraine to such military heights but does indeed degrade Russian military and financial strength so much that the effect is the same?
NATO must wrestle with this question. Russia thus threatened will have no problem going to their nukes.
Now, one of our drones was spoofed by these guys.
Could it be that THEIR drones can use Starlink in some way?
I hope not..