A senior Ukrainian presidential aide sharply criticized Elon Musk after SpaceX took steps to stop its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones.
What Occurred: Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reacting to Musk with anger, mentioned his firm had failed to acknowledge Ukraine’s right to self-defense.
The feedback from Podolyak comes after SpaceX’s chief working officer Gwynne Shotwell mentioned it has restricted Kyiv’s capacity to make use of its satellite tv for pc web service for navy functions after experiences that Kyiv has used it to control drones.
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At a convention within the U.S., Shotwell mentioned the shock choice was taken as a result of the corporate by no means supposed to permit Starlink for use “for offensive functions.”
Shotwell added that Starlink was “by no means, by no means meant to be weaponized” by Ukraine.
“Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways in which have been unintentional and never a part of any settlement,” she mentioned.
Starlink has performed a essential position in Kyiv’s struggle in opposition to Vladimir Putin‘s invasion.
Zelenskyy’s advisor mentioned the companies had to decide if they were “on the side of the right to freedom” or “on the Russian Federation’s side and its ‘proper’ to kill and seize territories” after its unprecedented struggle that began final yr.
In the meantime, Musk, final week, railed in opposition to a Russian state TV host and Putin’s ally for calling him a “war criminal” over his company’s support for Ukraine. Vladimir Solovyov had mentioned that Musk was “in precept, a struggle felony” because the Starlinks he had supplied to Ukraine have been “all now getting used to create assault drones of varied energy levels.”
Photograph: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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