BRANDON J WEICHERT
Elon Musk has done it again. After initially wading into the Russo-Ukrainian war by giving the beleaguered Ukrainian defenders against the terrible Russian invasion free access to 20,000 Starlink terminals, Musk is reassessing his commitment.
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine this year, Musk was goaded into generously providing free Internet access to Ukraine via his visionary Starlink satellite communications network.
Starlink is SpaceX’s attempt to deliver affordable, reliable Internet service to parts of the world that otherwise lack access. This constellation of simple, small, easily replaceable satellites is already remaking the way that we communicate globally. Further, it’s remaking the way we wage war.
Thanks to Musk’s contribution of free Starlink service to Ukraine in its hour of need, the billionaire helped to ensure that the Ukrainians could defend their country from being consumed by the brutal Russians.
Yet as the war has dragged on – and with Ukrainian forces achieving victory after victory against the Russians – fears abound that rather than lose a war that everyone believed would be easily winnable by the Russians, President Vladimir Putin might decide to launch nuclear weapons.
For Elon Musk, this risk is a red line. So he declared his intention to stop providing free Starlink service to Ukraine, though he has since backtracked.
This month, Musk tweeted his support for a negotiated settlement between Kiev and Moscow that would cede the Russian-speaking eastern portions of Ukraine to Russia in exchange for ending the war.
For a variety of reasons, not least of which because it is their country that Musk is proposing they trade away with the Russians after the Russians initiated this brutal war, the Ukrainians dismissed Musk’s reasonable calls to avert nuclear world war.
In fact, a Ukrainian diplomat took the very undiplomatic act of telling Musk to “f*ck off” on Twitter.
Perhaps the diplomat didn’t get the message: Musk’s Starlink constellation is the only thing keeping Ukraine connected to the global telecommunications network. In fact, according to one estimate, if Starlink were removed from Ukraine’s arsenal, its fighting capabilities would decrease by a whopping 60%.
In modern combat, speed kills, after all.
A Ukrainian soldier with a Starlink receiving terminal. Photo: WikipediaThe Russians have been outmaneuvered repeatedly throughout the war they were supposed to win easily. And part of the reason for that is that the Ukrainian defenders have managed to coordinate massive offensives far better and faster than their Russian foes can respond to or defend against.
Ukrainian communications, thanks to the survivable nature of Starlink, have yet to be severed by Russian forces. An electronically isolated Ukraine is what Russia has longed for and Musk has prevented from happening.
Musk compromised – but by whom?
Now, because the war risks going nuclear the longer it drags on – as well as how ungrateful Ukraine has been to Musk for losing US$20 million per day by providing free Starlink services – Musk said he was done. SpaceX would no longer foot the bill for Ukraine to use the Starlink service. Instead, he said, the US government would have to pay for Ukraine to use Starlink. Otherwise, the Ukrainians would lose this key advantage.
Musk’s statement evoked rage from across the political spectrum, both in Ukraine and throughout the West. Some have questioned whether Musk is compromised by Russia.
This charge is especially rich, given how generous Musk was to Ukraine throughout the war. SpaceX, after all, is a business and not a charity. Its Starlink satellite constellation is one of its most valuable assets.
Further, the charge about Musk being compromised is doubly ridiculous, because so many of those making these spurious claims are defenders of US President Joe Biden. The corrupt exploits of Biden’s controversial son Hunter in Ukraine (and elsewhere) have reached legendary status. If anyone is compromised, it’s President Biden.
Musk’s support for a proper peace plan in the Russo-Ukrainian war – and the fact that he is now using Starlink as a key leverage point to try to force about this outcome – is not the result of some nefarious scheme by Musk to empower Russia at the West’s expense. Instead, it is the result of decades of idealism that has defined Musk’s long, successful career.
This is the man who left the lap of luxury as a billionaire to found two companies that most experts believed would fail, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk created these companies less out of a need to make money (he was extremely wealthy when he created the two companies) but out of his sense that he needed to use his resources to try to save the world from destruction.
Tesla represents Musk’s attempt to avoid a man-made environmental catastrophe by driving the technology that might one day reduce or eliminate entirely humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels, which most environmental scientists believe to be the source of catastrophic man-made climate change. Regardless of our opinion on the matter, this is what Musk believes and he has acted in accordance with those beliefs.
Similarly, SpaceX exemplifies Musk’s commitment to making humanity a multi-planetary species. For the South African–born tech billionaire, colonizing Mars is the only way to ensure that humanity does not obliterate itself in a nuclear world war. And, wouldn’t you know it, the longer the Russo-Ukrainian war drags on, the greater the likelihood is that we will enter a nuclear world war.
Musk’s idealism is determining his next course of action. He is trying to distance himself from the situation in Ukraine because he fears what will happen if he continues providing a capability that Ukraine will use to carry on the war and risk total Armageddon. Since his Starlink contribution is allowing the war to drag on, and in light of how boorishly the Ukrainians have behaved toward him lately, Musk simply wants out.
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system has kept the internet up and running in Ukraine. Image: TwitterBesides, SpaceX remains a business. Not only is Starlink meant as a profit-seeking enterprise, but by assisting Ukraine, Musk’s properties and business interests globally are threatened, as now other regimes, such as China, Russia, Iran and others, view SpaceX as nothing more than an appendage of American military power.
Hate him all you want but Musk has done more than any other billionaire to aid the cause of Ukraine. He’s just not willing to ride a nuke all the way down to Russian targets like Major Kong did at the end of Dr Strangelove.
Under pressure
Stop saying that he’s compromised. He’s not. Musk just wants to let his technology mature to allow for him to get humans to Mars, so we all have a chance of seeing our species survive whatever fresh calamity we cook up on this world.
To show you how uncompromised Musk is, not long after initially stating that SpaceX would no longer provide free Internet services via Starlink to Ukraine, Musk backtracked in a tweet this weekend.
Obviously, someone in the US government got to Musk and outlined for him how bad that would be both for his reputation and, more important, the future of SpaceX. As I’ve reported since February 2021, the Biden administration has been out for Musk because of his politics. He knows it, too.
To protect his business, it seems that Musk has allowed himself to be compromised … by the US government.
Anyway, if Ukraine were smart, it would take its significant tactical gains of late and convert them into a strategic victory by making a deal with Moscow and ending the whole conflict before Putin goes totally nuts and fulfills Musk’s worst nightmare: nuclear world war. We’re locked into a very nightmarish future unless some kind of offramp from this regional war is offered.
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