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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
American billionaire Elon Musk shared a post in which SpaceX’s decision to provide Starlink satellite internet to Ukraine at the start of the full-scale war was called a mistake. The author of the post accused Ukrainians of using satellite communications for strike drones, but Musk himself did not comment on these assertions, limiting himself to a repost.
Whole Mars Catalog reports this on the X social network.
Elon Musk again drew attention to his company SpaceX’s role in supplying Ukraine with satellite internet during the war with Russia. The billionaire reposted a message from the Whole Mars Catalog account, the author of which criticized the decision to provide Starlink equipment to Ukraine for free.
The post claims that SpaceX made a mistake at the beginning of the Russian invasion by giving Ukrainians thousands of satellite terminals. Separately, the author mentioned the company’s multi-million-dollar costs in providing free connectivity.
The main accusation concerns the use of satellite internet for military purposes. The post author stated that the system initially provided for civilian needs later became part of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
“Looking back, it was a mistake on SpaceX’s part. What began as civilian internet access became the backbone for autonomous killer drones,” the post says.
The author also complained that the company is criticized when it does not support the military use of its technologies. In his view, SpaceX found itself in a situation where the initial decision to help Ukraine created additional obligations for it.
At the same time, Elon Musk himself did not write that he regrets transferring equipment to Ukraine. He did not add any comment to the shared post, so his own position on all the stated assertions cannot be established.
Starlink satellite internet began delivering to Ukraine in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion. In February 2022 year, Ukrainian officials, including then Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, publicly appealed to Musk to provide the country with satellite communications.
SpaceX quickly responded to the appeal, and by 28 February 2022 of the year, the first terminals arrived in Ukraine. They were intended to help ensure communications amid hostilities and damage to ordinary telecommunications infrastructure.
During the first months of the war, Ukraine received about 20 thousand Starlink equipment kits. A portion of these supplies was funded directly by SpaceX.
Initially, the focus was on providing internet access to hospitals, government agencies, and critical infrastructure facilities. At the same time, the use of terminals for Ukrainian military needs was not a secret from the outset.
Later, the system of funding satellite communications also changed. Starting from 2023 year, the main costs of operating Starlink terminals in Ukraine are covered by the governments of the United States and Poland.
There were separate disputes around Musk’s statements about using ordinary Starlink terminals directly on strike drones. Earlier Ukrainian specialists disputed such claims, citing technical limitations of the equipment.
According to Ukrainian experts, ordinary Starlink terminals are not used on strike drones due to technical limitations. For such tasks, military Starshield systems are used.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Маск поширив заяву, що допомога Україні зі Starlink була помилкою SpaceX". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Expert.
