Ukrainian presidential adviser says deaths of civilians ‘the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego’
Ukrainian presidential adviser says deaths of civilians ‘the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego’
A senior Ukrainian official has accused Elon Musk of “committing evil” after a new biography revealed details about how the business magnate ordered his Starlink satellite communications network to be turned off near the Crimean coast last year to hobble a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships.
In a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which Musk owns, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote that Musk’s interference led to the deaths of civilians, calling them “the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego”.
“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian fleet via Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, and children are being killed,” Podolyak wrote.
“Why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realise that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?”
Musk defended his decision, saying he did not want his SpaceX company to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation”.
CNN on Thursday quoted an excerpt from the biography Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, which described how armed submarine drones were approaching a Russian fleet near the Crimean coast when they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly”.
The biography, due out on Tuesday, alleges Musk ordered Starlink engineers to turn off the service in the area of the attack because of his concern that Vladimir Putin would respond with nuclear weapons to a Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied Crimea.
Musk, who is also the CEO of the Tesla electric car company and SpaceX rocket and spacecraft manufacturer, initially agreed to supply Starlink hardware to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion disrupted Ukrainian communications. But he reportedly had second thoughts after Kyiv succeeded in repelling the initial Russian assault and began to counterattack.
Musk has previously been embroiled in a social media spat with Ukrainian officials including the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, over his ideas for ending Russia’s invasion.
In October last year, Musk proposed a peace deal involving re-running under UN supervision annexation referendums in Moscow-occupied Ukrainian regions, acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula and giving Ukraine a neutral status.
“Preliminary analysis suggests that the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has grown further in the first half of 2023, driven in particular by the dismantling of Twitter’s safety standards.
The EU has also accused Musk’s X of allowing Russian propaganda about Ukraine to spread on its website.
A study released last week by the European Commission, the governing body of the European Union, found that “the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has grown further in the first half of 2023.”
The study said that the increased reach of Russian propaganda online was “largely driven by Twitter, where engagement grew by 36% after CEO Elon Musk decided to lift mitigation measures on Kremlin-backed accounts”.
Musk on Friday attempted to refute the EU study, writing on his social media platform: “Where is all this pro-Russian propaganda? We don’t see it.”
I call bullshit. He sold them fucking internet as a fucking contract with the damn Pentagon. What else would they be used for. If you wanted to use that excuse then you should’ve never made the contract. This was planned from the start. He sold the contract to have greater control over their military operations. This is just the first of a long line of items to come
Sounds an awful lot like elon musk needs to be sent to the Russian front his fucking self. I hope ukraine charges him as a Russian spy and puts out a bounty on him.
Instead he merely did it to a strong US ally to benefit a long-time US adversary. An adversary we have practically as many sanctions on as is feasible before it becomes a declaration of war.
I don't know what crime this is. Logan Act violation? But at this point Starlink is being used as a strategic asset in a US ally's war and should be seized by the US government as a military asset.
I'm sure that DOD lawyers are taring through the contract they signed with him. But, since the dumb SOB admitted to it, if the contract doesn't have a provision to let him do this they can sue him under carriage laws. Ending with the government taking away his operating license and siezing his operating network. The DOD has been wanting to create their own such network in any case.
They're all over reddit too. There's nothing more pathetic than witnessing a thread get brigaded by a bunch of Muskrats. Imagine living vicariously though the immature twitter antics of a white supremacist billionaire. They're clowns.
The general public does. Check out YouTube's front page while you're logged out sometime. At any given moment, you'll more than likely find at least one video full of simps singing their praises to Musk in the comments. The title is usually something like "Elon's brilliant new idea will make such and such obsolete!". It's disgusting how many people see him as genius who can do no wrong.
If you want to take his technology to wage foreign wars then do it.
If you'd rather just rely on a private citizens to provide vital military infrastructure to your allies then deal with the fact that private citizens are prone to such behaviors as acting in their own best interest.
The timing is the issue. If Musk had disallowed use of Starlink for drone control from the start, then that's one thing.
If he had notified the Ukraine Armed forces that he was going to do it ahead of time, that would have been best.
However, he ordered that their access be disrupted while an attack on the Russian Navy was going to take place. Meaning Starlink access was cut just at the worst time and caused the drones to simply wash ashore.
That same Navy has been causing thousands of civilian casualties.
How Musk knew Ukraine was going to launch an attack but hadn't hit their targets yet is another concerning fact.
CNN on Thursday quoted an excerpt from the biography Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, which described how armed submarine drones were approaching a Russian fleet near the Crimean coast when they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly”.
The biography, due out on Tuesday, alleges Musk ordered Starlink engineers to turn off the service in the area of the attack because of his concern that Vladimir Putin would respond with nuclear weapons to a Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied Crimea.
It would be the difference between GM shutting down your car remotely when it's parked after sending you notice vs GM shutting off your car when you're at highway speeds and taking an exit.
So what you're saying is taxpayers are already on the hook for when the cheap shit breaks since Musk is king of government subsidies. So why wouldn't we nationalize it so we get the benefits too.
Oh no see he prevented Moscow nuking Ukraine by doing this. What a hero! /s
I can't believe we live in this society of appeasers. Him and the Republicans. I remember a time when Republicans accused Democrats of not being able to stand up to dictators, and now they are full throttle.
he took sides and engaged in a military conflict, there's no other way to see it.. he doesn't have that authority, no matter what technology his little company controls..
I can't be the only person who wondered "what's his real motive" when he volunteered these for free, knowing much of what he is known for.
I guess people he's visited in DC have benefitted as well, because surely they knew this wouldn't go well, right?
Elon Musk is an attention starved and has the mentality of an impulsive spoiled child. Slava Ukraini was trending, so he wanted to insert himself into it to get attention. Probably thought Ukraine would lose so he gets a little attention for trying to help these guys fighting the good fight before they were ultimately crushed by Russia.
But that didn't happen. Ukraine continues on and what he thought of as a little in the moment publicity stunt obligated him to helping Ukraine. While most people would happy with the result, but scared little child Elon Musk felt he was in over his head. And being the impulsive child he is, started doing impulsive shit and interfered in an active military conflict, compromising an ally's mission.
It's hard to say how much DC is in the know. It is a new tech, glitches happen, so they might not have suspected Musk was the glitch in the system.
I was talking about this with someone today, and pondering what would happen if a private Ukrainian citizen had decided to deliberately fuck up an American military action, and what the American response would be.
The closest I could think of was Julian Assange, a non-US citizen who leaked a bunch of US military info and probably somewhat fucked up whatever they were up to at the time, or at least drew more attention to it than they would have liked. They're currently trying to extradite him to the US for "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion" and who knows what they'll do to him when that inevitably gets pushed through. I guess Chelsea Manning's treatment is probably some indicator for that too.
So anyway, I expect Elon Musk will probably be extradited to Ukraine and spend a year or so in solitary confinement there right away. Maybe hide in an embassy for a few years first?
Getting a gun on US soil is trivial, especially if you look European. They could purchase a 30-06 at just about any Courthouse Days without even showing ID.
Musk defended his decision, saying he did not want his SpaceX company to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation”.
So, in the classic trolley problem, Elon's choice is to remove the track switch that his company produced so that no one else could use it to make a choice.
"Sorry, guys. Looks like those innocent civilians tied to the tracks are going to have to die so that I am not tangentially and tenuously responsible for your choice to save them in exchange for the deaths of Russian soldiers attacking your sovereign lands and people (cough and lose money from the Kremlin as a result cough)"
There's no "right" answer to the trolley problem. But there are definitely wrong ones.
the fucking little cunt is dying to lick Putin's tiny shit covered dick that much? If he wants it then the brat should have gone the front lines so the ruZZian invaders can take his ass to his naZis fuhrer
I agree, there's probably a tape, but I think there's more than pissing going on in it.
At this point if there's a tape of a prostitute peeing on Musk in a Moscow hotel room, it wouldn't be anything shocking or damage his reputation all that much beyond what he's done to himself already. I think if there is a tape, it's gotta be something really fucked up.
So your saying we should all surrender to a nuclear dictator cuz he might nuke us? Sure! Go ahead and take Alaska and Canada! We wouldn't want to start a nuclear war now would we?
I tend to feel sympathy for defenders. I was happy to see that one helicopter get shit down in Desert Storm 2, I think we should never have gone to Afghanistan and I think Russia should never have attacked Kiev. It seems consistent to me.
Everybody loved him when he was saving humanity by inventing the electric car and bringing humans to mars but he makes one wartime decision to avert nuclear war and everybody turns on him. It just goes to show that our lazy society doesn’t value job creators and innovators.