StrategyPage has a summary of how Starlink helped the Ukraine by providing internet communications.
When Russia invaded Ukraine before dawn on February 24th, the Ukrainian minister of digital transformation contacted Musk for help in dealing with Russian efforts to cut Ukrainian access to the Internet....
Musk agreed to help and within four days hundreds of Starlink satellites were moved into position to provide Ukraine with high-speed Internet service using hundreds of Starlink user kits Musk sent to Ukraine.
Musk ultimately supplied Ukraine with nearly 2,000 terminals and managed to persuade countries supplying military aid for Ukraine to include Ukrainian requests for more Starlink terminals, especially the more expensive, and capable commercial models. In this way Ukraine was able to obtain over 25,000 terminals so far. ... about 500 terminals are month are lost to Russian attacks. These have to be replaced and most, if not all, of the replacements are paid for by military aid for Ukraine. The Starlink replacement terminals cost about a million dollars a month.
But apparently Musk is paying for the cost of keeping the statellites running, and this includes fighting Russian hacking of the system.
notice that unlike certain Europeans nearby, who hesitated in sending in help, Musk started helping within days of the Russian invasion, and that being a private company didn't have to fight the sluggish redtape etc of government help.
But also note this:
Yet for some reason the U.S. government refuses to make Starlink service part of its multi-billion-dollar military aid effort for Ukraine.
After weeks of this Musk ended the discussion by openly agreeing to keep paying for the Ukrainian Starlink service. While Musk is the world’s richest man, there are limits to his resources and the enormous costs of maintaining Starlink for Ukraine in wartime is unprecedented and not sustainable at its current level. Musk is returning to private discussions with the American government over the issue.
There is a lot of suspicion on conspiracy pages that a lot of the aid money being sent to the Ukraine is being siphoned off to private folks, or even circled back to bribe American officials, but never mind. Corruption? WTF?
and the conspiracy sites hint that US regulatory state is doing it's best to destroy Musk and his ventures, because they can't control him... (twitter anyone?) Or if you are really paranoid, maybe China is pressuring certain folks to use the US bureaucrats to slow down or stop Musk here. (no link: just wondering).
So why not offer to help pay Musk to keep the internet in the Ukraine open?
I think the idea was for him to stop the internet service and voila, the MSM can paint him as the bad guy. Alternative scenerio: Make him go broke so he can't fix twitter.
and of course, Musk's threat to stop paying for the Ukraine's internet this will be quoted out of context to destroy Musk, who dared to propose a way to make peace....
Peace in our time? Or maybe just common sense.
This is being protrayed as a threat to the Ukraine of course, (who never really owned the Crimea, which used to belong to the Ottoman Empire before Russia took it over);
This area provides wheat to North Africa and the Middle East, and the problem is that the food disruption caused by this war is a big problem for a lot of people who rely on eating Ukraine wheat (not to mention the fertilizer connection).
So would letting Russia keep the Crimea, which was never part of the Ukraine, be wrong?
well if you are making oodles of money selling weapons, or receiving bribes and kickbacks or stealing aid money, the answer is yes. Heck, even NPR is worried about the corruption.
Actually I hope the Ukraine wins: But excuse my cynicism here. The Philippine joke is that with corruption here, bribes are given under the table, over the table, and with the table. And that would be true for the Ukraine, Russia, and China...
There are other countries who would like to destroy Musk and Starlink: China (and Russia) are trying to get their own system in place, you can see why some folks might want to destroy an already completed satellite network that proves it can deliver the goods.
here is a WSJ video that mentions Chinese propaganda against Starlink:
Starlink was supposed to be available here in the Philippines this year, but now the date is set in early 2023.
this would be a godsend to those in the mountains north of here. And would keep up connectivity when disaster strikes: Our Globe phone and internet was okay during the last typhoon, but Joy's business internet with Huawei was out for ten days.
That is a small local disruption. But a very real problem is that a lot of internet cables run near Taiwan and are vulnerable to attack/
I remember when an earthquake destroyed some large internet cables near Taiwan back in 2006.... some internet was still available but not for ordinary folk.
China is aware of this, and it is part of their war plan to take over Taiwan.
recent report from Yahoo.news: this could disrupt the world economy.
So if China decides to cut the internet cables near Taiwan to isolate them, and/or threaten nearby countries to do this if they "interfere" or object to this aggression, Starlink could change their ability to do so.
Taiwan is now starting a Starlink internet connection.
Taiwan is a major global player in the electronics and IT sectors, which naturally requires the island to rely on internet connectivity for its economy. The Taiwanese government had declared its internet connectivity as a concern of national security. Currently, Taiwan relies on sea-based cable lines to connect itself to the rest of the world. This week, a Wall Street Journal article explained many regions around the island in which China has been conducting military exercises overlap areas of major undersea internet cables. For example, a Japanese ship was unable to repair a damaged cable line between Japan and Taiwan due to the Chinese military exercises. In defense of its internet connectivity, Taiwan is starting to build an internet infrastructure based on the Starlink constellation.
here is a discussion about Starlink in the Ukraine, and notes the US government trying to stop Musk on several levels:
State and federal governments have poured billions into Elon Musk's science and business ventures and offered the tech CEO lucrative and exclusive government contracts over the past 20 years. But some officials now worry Musk holds too much influence in foreign affairs and are seeking to curb his influence in Washington by funding his business competitors, according to a Washington Post report.
SCMP (used to be independent but now Chinese government controlled:
Biden officials uncomfortable with Elon Musk’s threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine, ‘Russia-friendly’ tweets and Twitter deal The US$44 billion Twitter deal could trigger a security review as it includes foreign investors such as Saudi’s Binance Holdings run by a Chinese national
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