Elon Musk Turned His Back on Ukraine: What Is Behind the Scandalous "Peace Plan" and Problems with Starlink

The American billionaire, inventor and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, who supported Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, today calls on Kiev for a de facto surrender, and his company no longer wants to fund Starlink communications in Ukraine. The billionaire says he does not want the conflict to escalate into a nuclear war, but experts do not rule out that this change in Musk's position may be the result of the influence of the Russian secret services. The media even reported that Musk discussed his "peace plan" personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin

TCN.ua decided to look into how Elon Musk's views have changed and what is behind it.

Problems with Starlink Communication

In September, Elon Musk's company SpaceX asked the Pentagon to take over funding for the government and military use of satellite communications Starlink in Ukraine

In a corresponding letter made public by CNN, SpaceX announced that it could no longer continue funding Starlink in Ukraine. The company claimed that it would need more than $120 million by the end of 2022 and about $400 million over the next 12 months to pay for services.

"We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time", the letter reads.

The letters came amid recent reports from the Ukrainian military about large-scale Starlink failures, which could have affected the AFU counteroffensive operation. Many such outages were recorded during the Ukrainian military's breakthrough of the front line into Russia-controlled territory, while some problems were recorded even during combat.

Elon Musk offered a strange explanation for his refusal to fund Starlink, trying to shift the blame on Ukrainian diplomat Andrei Melnyk.

Journalist Jason Jay Smart tweeted denial of Starlink funding may be “a game changer in the war”. Smart added that this cames days after Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk told Musk to “fuck off.” Musk responded that he was “just following Melnyk’s recommendation”.

However, it should be noted that the letter to the Pentagon with refusal to fund the communication was written back in September, while the scandalous tweet by the Ukrainian diplomat appeared later in October.

Elon Musk personally explained the decision to stop funding Starlink in Ukraine by the big losses:

" SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable", he tweeted.

According to Musk, Starlink is still losing money and it is “insanely difficult” for a LEO communications constellation to avoid bankruptcy.

Scandalous “Peace Plan”

On October 3rd, the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, angered society with a scandalous statement about the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. He suggested to "redo elections" of Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia. Musk also added that Russia was conducting a partial mobilization, so "victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war”.

In addition, he wrote that "some eastern portions had Russian majorities and preferred Russia”. Musk also launched a vote on his Twitter about the referendums in annexed territories and the Crimea issue.

In response, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyi launched his own mock vote on Twitter:

Which Elon Musk do you like more:

One who supports Ukraine;

One who supports Russia.

On October 7th, Musk tweeted that he was "a big fan of Ukraine, but not of the World War III.

Ukrainian social media users responded to Musk's statements with memes and ironic messages. TSN.ua collected the best of them.

In turn, volunteer and showman Serhii Prytula offered Ukrainians to buy a history book for the inventor. 

Russian Trace in Elon Musk’s Statements: Main Versions 

Human rights activist and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security Pavel Lysianskyi believes that Musk could have made his scandalous statement about Ukraine at the instigation of the Russian special services that recruit opinion leaders around the world.

"They’ve started recruiting opinion leaders. Look at Elon Musk – his statement was done deliberately to get this on the agenda. Now everyone is talking about it as an alternative. Elon Musk is the highest level... They are actively buying up opinion leaders at all levels in different countries in the West, they recruit trade unions and other platforms, so that they whitewash the Russian Federation ... It's a huge network of agents of influence," Lysianskyi said.

According to the expert, the Russian Federation "is gradually moving to the political plane of solving the issue of ending the war in Ukraine.

According to Vice, before publishing a number of scandalous tweets about the war in Ukraine, Elon Musk might have personally talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

American political scientist and founder of the Eurasia Group consulting company Ian Bremmer claimed that Musk himself admitted to him that Putin was ready "to negotiate". According to him, the dictator is ready for negotiations, but only if Crimea remains annexed by the Russian Federation, and if Ukraine recognizes Russia's illegal attempt to annex Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. Putin also demands a form of permanent neutrality from Ukraine.

According to Bremmer, Musk said that Putin told him that these goals would be achieved "no matter what”, including the possibility of using nuclear weapons if the Ukrainian Armed Forces enter Crimea.

Bremmer also claims that Musk refused to allow Ukraine to activate Starlink satellite Internet on the territory of the occupied peninsula.

Musk himself denied that he communicated with Putin shortly before writing his "peace plan”. The inventor claims that he spoke to the dictator only once - 18 months ago. The topic of the conversation was space.

General SVR Telegram channel published an exotic version of events. According to the channel authors, Elon Musk might have really talked to a man who posed as Russian President Vladimir Putin about a month ago. Here's what the mysterious channel writes:

"About a month ago, Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, during a report, told Putin that Elon Musk was looking for an opportunity to talk with the President.  Putin then unequivocally spoke out against communication, but Kiriyenko suggested the following option: with Putin’s permission, a person who will impersonate the president of Russia and try to convince Musk of the correctness of the positions of the Russian leadership, making him (Mask) practically an agent of influence, not only  to the millionth audience of ordinary people of Elon's fans, but also to the American establishment”. 

By the way, Kremlin soon responded to Musk's statements.

Actually, if these speculations true, the American was simply fooled. The channel claims that Russians took the billionaire's "word of honor" that this conversation would be confidential and the fact of it would not be made public.

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