SpaceX relinquishes control of ‘Ukrainian’ Starlink terminals to Pentagon

Elon Musk has handed over control of some of the Starlink satellite communication terminals used by the Defense Forces to the Pentagon. This was reported by his biographer, Walter Isaacson, for the Washington Post. The reason for this decision, according to Isaacson, was Mask's desire to dissociate himself from responsibility related to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"Musk had not enabled it in Crimea and kept that a secret ... They can't figure out because Musk also decides not to enable it in parts of Eastern Ukraine because he doesn't want it to be used for offensive purposes," Walter Isaacson said. But now, according to Isaacson's statements, the situation may change, as Musk has decided to transfer some of the terminals and control of the region to the United States Army.

"I talked to him during this whole thing and it was late one night, he said, 'Why am I in this war?' He said, 'I created Starlink so people could chill and watch Netflix movies and play video games. I did not mean to create something that might cause a nuclear war.' ... What he did, which I think is the right outcome, is he decided to sell and give total control of a certain amount of Starlink equipment, Starlink services to the U.S. military, so that he no longer controls the geofencing, he no longer controls the terms of use ...

I think that was his way of saying, 'I've got to get out of this," Isaacson said.

Ukrainian military installs Starlink. Photo from open sources

Earlier, Musk imposed restrictions on the operation of Ukrainian terminals that hindered defense or disrupted military operations. U.S. journalists reported that last year, Musk secretly ordered his engineers not to turn on his company's Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet.

And earlier this year, it became known that SpaceX had taken steps to prevent Ukraine's military from using the company's Starlink satellite internet service to control drones in the region in the war with Russia.

Satellite communication

Currently, the Ukrainian army is highly dependent on satellite communications services provided by SpaceX. SpaceX's terminals host a military communications network, including a critical link between reconnaissance drones and artillery units. Fast, reliable and uninterrupted communication allows striking targets from the moment they are detected, with an extremely short interval of less than 30 minutes.

Command observation post of the Defense Forces of Ukraine near Bakhmut, January 2023.

Photo credits: Al Jazeera

Due to satellite communications, the Ukrainian military managed to deploy command posts with online monitoring of the battlefield from UAV cameras.

This provides an unprecedented level of control and a significant advantage over the enemy.