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
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?
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?
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
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.