In 2022, SpaceX severed its connection with Starlink for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but until now it has denied any obstruction. Find out how Musk's political sympathies influenced the development of events and why the US government made deals with the businessman

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Elon Musk's SpaceX company, which in 2022 expressed a desire to provide access to Starlink satellite internet throughout Ukraine, blocked communication for the armed forces as soon as the Ukrainian military entered the territory temporarily occupied by russia. 

"For several months, Musk's SpaceX company provided Internet access across Ukraine, allowing the country's armed forces to plan attacks and defend themselves. But the connection was severed when they entered russian-disputed territory," The New Yorker reports.

How Musk's personal preferences affected the course of events, what ultimatum SpaceX delivered to the Pentagon, and what agreements the US government reached with the businessman - we will analyze further in the article with reference to TNY.

Blocking Starlink in Ukraine

Elon Musk joined the effort to help Ukraine almost immediately after the full-scale russian invasion in 2022, but soon his personal political sympathies were reflected on the battlefield in Ukraine. Moreover, Musk's decisions forced the US authorities to take unprecedented actions. Despite russia's attempts to dismantle Ukrainian communications, they could not do so due to the peculiarities of satellite communications, but Elon Musk himself could do it.

"We started to panic a bit. Musk could have turned off the connection at any time. And this could have had a real operational impact on the Ukrainians," a US Department of Defense official told TNY. "Although Musk is not formally a diplomat or a statesman, I thought it was important to treat him as such, given the influence he had on this issue," he added.

According to the publication's interlocutors who participated in the organization of Starlink's work in Ukraine, at first no one even thought about the impact that Elon Musk's control could potentially have, because at that time it was necessary to act quickly, because it was about people's lives. 

"We crossed the border, and Starlink stopped working. Communication was interrupted, and the units were isolated. Commanders had to go to the battlefield to be within range of radio communication, risking their lives... It was chaos," one of the soldiers who was on the front line at the time told the publication.

The communication disruption affected units in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk. Calls were coming in from everywhere with reports of loss of communication and the need to retreat.

The issue was resolved, and in the following months thousands of Starlink units were sent to Ukraine, but the support was short-lived.

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What ultimatum did Elon Musk give to the Pentagon?

At the beginning of the russian invasion, the billionaire demonstrated unconditional support for Ukraine, but later SpaceX began to express doubts, which eventually turned into an ultimatum to the Pentagon.

"We are not in a position to continue to donate terminals to Ukraine or finance existing terminals for an indefinite period of time," SpaceX's director of government sales said in a letter to the Pentagon in September 2022.

Later, SpaceX issued an ultimatum to the Pentagon: if it does not cover the cost of providing services in Ukraine, which the company estimated at about four hundred million dollars a year, the company will stop access.

What did the US government agree with Elon Musk on?

Senior U.S. officials were forced to make certain arrangements with Elon Musk, because he had a lever in his hands that could put an end to satellite communications in Ukraine. And based on the statements made by the businessman, the US government began to worry that "he could wake up one morning and just decide that he no longer wanted to do this."

In particular, at one point, Musk expressed concern that his technology was being used to wage war. And during the Aspen conference, he even expressed support for putin and emphasized the need for Ukraine to negotiate with russia.

Later, the billionaire published his "peace plan" and tried to convince his followers of the alleged inevitability of the outcome of the war in favor of russia, but most people did not support his ideas.

Therefore, a series of meetings were held to explain and resolve the situation.

"For us, it was a kind of way to fix the services throughout Ukraine. It could have at least prevented Musk from pulling the plug altogether," explained former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl.

In the end, Elon Musk abandoned his threats to stop providing Starlink satellite services in Ukraine and agreed to give the Pentagon time to develop a contract to provide services to Ukraine. And in June 2023, the US Department of Defense officially announced that it had reached an agreement with SpaceX on the purchase and maintenance of Starlink terminals. Details of the negotiations were not disclosed.

We remind you! On the morning of August 22, the Ukrainian authorities officially confirmed that the armed forces had entered the village of Robotyno, Zaporizhzhia region. Read more about why russia has been stubbornly bringing reserves to this village for more than 2 months and what opportunities the liberation of the village opens up for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in our previous article.

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