During a pivotal push by #Ukraine to retake territory from #Russia in late Sept 2022, #ElonMusk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive & dented Kyiv’s trust in #Starlink, the satellite internet service Musk provided to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity.

Acc/to 3 people familiar with the command, #Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of #SpaceX to cut coverage in areas including #Kherson, a strategic region north of the #BlackSea.

“We have to do this,” Michael Nicolls, the #Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order from #Musk, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the 3 people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, their hexagon-shaped cells going dark on an internal map of the company’s coverage. The move also affected other areas seized by #Russia, including some of #Donetsk province further east.

#power #corruption #oligarchy

Upon #Musk’s order, #Ukraine troops suddenly faced a #communications #blackout, acc/to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, & 2 others who experienced #Starlink failure near the front lines. Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling #Russia forces went dark, & long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets.

#power #corruption #oligarchy

As a result,…troops failed to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, the administrative center of the region of the same name. “The encirclement stalled entirely,” said the military official in an interview. “It failed.”

Ultimately, #Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeded in reclaiming Beryslav, the city of Kherson & some additional territory #Russia had occupied.

#power #corruption #oligarchy

But #Musk’s order, which hasn’t previously been reported, is the first known instance of the billionaire actively [& personally] shutting off #Starlink coverage over a battlefield during the conflict. The decision shocked some Starlink employees & effectively reshaped the front line of the fighting, enabling #Musk to take “the outcome of a war into his own hands,” another one of the three people said.

#power #corruption #oligarchy

The parliamentarian is a businesswoman & fmr board member at #Twitter, the social media site that #Musk acquired in 2022 & rebranded as #X.

“Its control,” Lane Fox said of #Starlink, “rests solely with Musk, allowing his whims to dictate access to vital infrastructure.”

Musk’s political #influence, & his massive business with the #US federal govt, are now being put to the test. Since leaving his role advising #Trump, Musk has publicly feuded with the president….

#power #corruption #oligarchy

The #US Department of #Defense declined to comment. Reuters couldn’t determine whether #WhiteHouse or #Pentagon officials after the shutdown had any exchanges with #Musk over the outage.

The #Kherson episode is distinct from an earlier report of an incident that purportedly occurred that same September, involving #Crimea just to the south, & raised concerns about Musk’s ability to influence the conflict in #Ukraine.

#power #influence #corruption #oligarchy

In his 2023 biography of #Musk, author Walter Isaacson reported that the tycoon had ordered #Starlink to disable coverage in #Crimea, which #Russia had annexed from #Ukraine after a 2014 invasion that the international community condemned as #illegal. Musk, Isaacson wrote, believed a planned Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels in the Crimean port of Sevastopol could prompt #nuclear retaliation.

#power #influence #corruption #oligarchy

“There are things that we can do, & have done” to prevent it, she added, without providing further detail.

Reuters couldn’t determine if the shutdown affecting Kherson was among the steps she was referring to…

Following the start of the Kherson shutdown, word of an outage emerged in some media reports. At the time, it wasn’t clear to those who lost connectivity whether a technical problem, sabotage or some other factor was responsible.

#Musk #Starlink #power #influence #corruption #oligarchy

Early in the war, #Russia orchestrated a large #cyberattack that disrupted service of another #satellite operator, Western ofcls said, …leaving a void quickly filled by #Starlink.…

As of April 2025, acc/to #Ukraine…, Kyiv has received >50k Starlink terminals. Easily transported & deployed, the pizza-box-sized devices communicate w/thousands of #SpaceX satellites now circling the globe. An initial batch of terminals was provided to Ukraine by SpaceX…. Further terminals have arrived from donors…

This account of the outage, & the growing #dependence on #Musk by governments & militaries worldwide, is based on interviews with >3 dozen people with knowledge of #SpaceX operations & the company’s #technology. These people included current & former employees, #US & #Europe military officials, & senior politicians & diplomats.

The reporting puts a spotlight on Musk’s #control of services now #critical to countries including the US, which has about $22B in contracts w/SpaceX.

#Starlink #power

Underscoring the point himself during his recent dispute with #Trump, #Musk threatened to decommission a #SpaceX spacecraft the US now relies upon to transport #astronauts & critical cargo.

His threat, later retracted, unnerved attorneys at #NASA, who felt forced to explore whether Musk’s warning could be considered a notice of #contract termination, according to two people familiar with the matter.

#Starlink #power #influence #corruption #oligarchy

“There needs to be some contractual assurances” that #Musk won’t cut off services to the #US govt, said Lori Garver, a fmr deputy administrator of #NASA. “We will need to consider how comfortable the US will be at putting #SpaceX in the critical path on #NationalSecurity.”

As countries increasingly rely on #tech companies for everything from #CyberDefense to #DataStorage, the question of #dependence on one or a few dominant service providers will apply to other nations, too.

#power #corruption

…#SpaceX is the first company to establish an extensive network of communication satellites in low-Earth orbit, a region of #space that is closer to the planet than areas where such satellites historically reside. The proximity of #satellites that now make up the company’s constellation allows #Starlink to offer space-based #wireless connectivity that is faster than any previously available.

#Musk #power #influence #corruption #oligarchy

#Starlink on Thurs suffered a rare #global #outage of several hours, the company said, because of an internal software problem. A #Ukraine military commander in a social media post said “Starlink is down across the entire front,” updating the post 2½ hours later to say connectivity had returned.

With >7,900 #satellites now in orbit, #SpaceX has become the world’s largest satellite operator. Its devices…account for about ⅔ of all active satellites in #space….

#Musk #power #influence #corruption

Musk is begging governments to nationalize his companies.

Musk does not get to decide whether nations are permitted to defend themselves from a despot like Putin.

Remember, if they'll do it *with* you, they'll do it *to* you.
Musk is a national security risk to every democracy.

jacobin.com/2025/06/musk-trump…

thebignewsletter.com/p/steve-b…

We Should Immediately Nationalize SpaceX and Starlink

The slap fight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has highlighted the absurdity of keeping so much of our space program and satellite internet infrastructure in the hands of a single oligarch.

^jacobin.com