Elon Musk and the First Starlink War

The renowned magazine ‘New Yorker’ published an acclaimed article on Monday. Title: “The Shadow Government of Elon Musk”.

The subhead reads: “How the US government relied on the technology billionaire – and now struggles to rein it in.”

The article shows how Musk’s visionary investments have enabled him to gain unparalleled geopolitical clout that now allows him to negotiate on an equal footing with the world’s most powerful leaders.

The author, Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow, also processes Musk’s contradictory attitude to the war in Ukraine and his dangerous closeness to Vladimir Putin.

Overall, the New Yorker paints a worrying picture. It is less about revelations than about an impressive characterization of a driven man. An unpredictable, unfeeling egomaniac.

The perpetually electrified entrepreneur has been struggling to relax for some time now. In 2018, it was leaked that he was taking the prescription sleep aid Ambien, which can cause hallucinations. And in the spring it became known that he was using ketamine, a substance that has become popular as a recreational drug, but is also used to treat depression.

How important is Elon Musk to Ukraine?

Extremely important.

In March 2022, about a month after the start of the Russian invasion, I guessed in an analysis:

We now know that Musk’s activities contributed significantly to Ukraine’s continued existence as a sovereign state and its ability to hold its own against the Russian military and its bombs.

Starlink is now being used for military and civilian purposes in war-torn Ukraine. The electricity storage system “Tesla Powerwall” also plays an important role.

Ukrainian Minister of Digital Affairs Mychailo Fedorov summed it up in a video message at the end of July. Standing between large white Tesla boxes, he thanked Musk “for the essential equipment.”

According to Fedorov, more than 500 battery storage systems ensure the resilience of Ukraine’s energy supply and medical and social infrastructure – in the face of the ongoing Russian missile terror. Moreover, according to the digital minister, more than 40,000 Starlink terminals have already been delivered to Ukraine.

The receiving dishes, called dishes, are used in fields, in forests, in villages and on military vehicles, as the New York Times states.

The technology has given the Ukrainian military a major advantage over the Russian armed forces. The mobile broadband connections allowed artillery crews, commanders and pilots to simultaneously view drone footage and chat online.

The reaction time from detecting a target to attacking it has been reduced from nearly 20 minutes to about 60 seconds, according to the soldiers.

In addition, Musk’s online platform X (formerly Twitter) plays a major role in the fight against Russian disinformation on the internet. However, we must not forget that Putin is waging an information war against all democratic states. And one of the most prominent victims is probably Elon Musk of all people.

What about Musk’s pro-Russian statements?

Certain public statements by the technology billionaire suggest that he has been, and apparently continues to be, influenced by Russian state propaganda and disinformation.

But that is not the main point and should not be elaborated upon at this point. Because: the survival of Ukraine is threatened by the Russian criminal war of aggression and the government under Volodymyr Zelenskyj cannot put Musk’s words on the golden scale anyway. When it comes to the main goal, which is to live in freedom, a pragmatic approach is required.

The decisive factor is that Starlink works on Ukrainian territory (including Crimea!) and the necessary additional hardware is supplied from Poland and other partner countries if necessary. If that works, Ukrainians wouldn’t care too much about what Russian propaganda the self-centered multibillionaire is hiding.

So what is Starlink all about?

In the absence of alternatives, Starlink will remain indispensable for the defense of Ukraine and for repelling Russian war criminals for the foreseeable future.

And here it is worth remembering the red lines that Musk – for whatever reason – drew. As New York Times informants confirmed, last year he refused the Ukrainian government’s request to allow Starlink access to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. He later stated that Starlink should not be used for long-range drone strikes.

In February of this year he tweeted:

The fear of a Russian use of nuclear bombs is a narrative that the Kremlin is deliberately fomenting in the West. The fact that Musk jumped on it and limited Starlink’s geofencing coverage allowed Musk to have too much leverage over war-critical technology. Dissatisfaction was also expressed among Ukrainian officials.

Musk received support from Ukraine’s Digital Affairs Minister Fedorov, who said critical questions about Musk’s involvement were unfair. When Ukraine was heavily bombed and faced major power outages in November 2022, Musk helped accelerate the delivery of about 10,000 Starlink terminals.

The US government has now intervened. Washington has probably finally realized that Ukraine’s network coverage should not depend on the whims of an entrepreneur who has emerged as a Putin household name.

In June, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved an agreement to purchase 400 to 500 new Starlink terminals and related services. Details of the deal remain secret.

The New York Times noted that the Pentagon has thus gained control over where Starlink operates in Ukraine. According to informants, this should enable the emergency services to carry out “certain missions”. And without fear of unexpected interruptions.

What is Russia doing?

Independent observers note that it’s unclear how much of the disruption to Ukraine’s Starlink service so far is due to restrictions imposed by SpaceX itself. Because as part of electronic warfare, the Russians try to disrupt or completely block connections, also known as jamming.

According to leaked intelligence reports, the Russian military has been testing a truck-mounted secret system called Tobol to block Starlink communications. Tobol is trying to take the satellites offline, the Washington Post reported in April.

In July, Ukraine’s cybersecurity authorities warned that poorly secured Starlink terminals could expose soldiers to “increased risk”.

This month, the Ukrainian state security service SBU announced that hackers from the Russian military intelligence service GRU – believed to be the ‘Sandworm’ group – are using special malware against Starlink.

Counterintelligence experts had discovered the malware on military Android tablets previously captured by the Russians. Apparently, the Russians were trying to monitor the Starlink connection of compromised devices to track down Ukrainian forces.

So far, the Starlink network has survived all destructive hacking attacks. However, the threat posed by Russian cyber fighters remains acute.

After all, Starlink runs a “bug bounty” program that promises a reward of up to $25,000 for security researchers who discover vulnerabilities in the satellite system.

Who wrote the last Musk-critical article?

Author is the 35 year old Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow: Pulitzer Prize winner, best-selling author, attorney, and son of Hollywood actress Mia Farrow.

His coverage of the Weinstein scandal (“MeToo”) earned him awards and great fame in 2018. His non-fiction book ‘War on Peace’, published the same year, in which he critically examines the militarization of US foreign policy, also received acclaim.

However, the star journalist was later accused of serious technical errors and some of his reporting was criticized as tendentious.

Why now?

The “New Yorker” article doesn’t explain why the magazine published it just now. In addition to the online version, it is expected to appear as a longread in the August 28 print edition.

The fact is that on September 12, just two weeks later, a long-awaited biography about Elon Musk will be published. Namely from the American writer Walter Isaacson, who won a world bestseller in 2011 with the official biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Discussions about the achievements and misconduct of the richest man in the world and his role at Starlink will increase in the coming period.

Sources