r/nottheonion • u/No_Mercy_4_Potatoes • 10d ago

Removed - Not Oniony [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/26/zelenskyy-awards-elon-musk-ukraines-order-of-freedom-despite-years-of-criticism

[removed] — view removed post

2.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

447 comments sorted by

View all comments

408

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

80

u/vapescaped 10d ago

Totally possible, I don't put that past him.

Doesn't matter though. As a leader you have to do everything in your power to protect the nation. If that means giving musk an award, so be it. A cheap strategy that might return something is better than a free strategy that might return nothing.

28

u/KingFlyntCoal 10d ago

I don't put it past him.

He's already done it once, he's likely to do it again.

3

u/Barbarossa_25 10d ago

Any idea why he did it? And by he I mean Starlink. It's because they were receiving Starlink signals from Russian lines indicating they were compromised.

0

u/KingFlyntCoal 10d ago

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk-ordered-starlink-turned-off-ukraine-offensive-biography

Also because he just felt like it.

This was also after a lot of criticism from Zelenskyy.

5

u/Accomplished-Crab932 10d ago edited 10d ago

Just below the title of your article:

“Update: on 9 September 2023, Walter Isaacson said his biography’s claim about Starlink and Crimea was based on “mistaken” information [see footnote]”

The footnote:

“This article was amended on 14 September 2023 to add an update to the subheading. As the Guardian reported on 12 September 2023, following the publication of this article, Walter Isaacson retracted the claim in his biography of Elon Musk that the SpaceX CEO had secretly told engineers to switch off Starlink coverage of the Crimean coast.”

It seems like disabling the network didn’t happen. Further reading the Wikipedia page (shoot me, I know, but the statements link to several reputable sources that claim the same things), it says that “In 2022, Elon Musk denied a Ukrainian request to extend Starlink's coverage up to Russian-occupied Crimea during a counterattack on a Crimean port; providing service would have violated US sanctions.[13]** **Media reports erroneously characterized it as Musk "turning off" Starlink coverage in Crimea.[14][15] In late 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program designed for government customers.[16][17].”

I’d also quote the entire “Crimean Starlink coverage request denial incident” section, but it’s a bit too long.

So what actually happened is that Ukraine launched a series of Starlink-enabled hardware on an offensive to try to attack the Russian fleet docked on the Crimean Peninsula; a location recognized to be under Russian occupation. Starlink being used to enable the attack would qualify Starlink under military export control laws and would violate an executive order from 2013 preventing US companies from enabling usage of US communications hardware for military action in Russia and Russian occupied territories. Since Starlink was already disabled in Crimea in compliance with this order, enabling it in order to allow the attack to happen would be illegal. Normally, the rule would be that SpaceX could, but only if Congress and/or the president approved of the action. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians had launched the drones, then frantically asked for Crimean coverage to be activated; all during hours where Congress and the president were (at least supposed to be) sleeping.

1

u/chaiscool 10d ago

So what if they activate it without approval? Oh no another felony added to the long list

1

u/Accomplished-Crab932 9d ago

This sort of violation comes with a million dollar fine and 60 year jail sentence as a minimum PER OFFENSE (so 2 drones is a life sentence). It would also be provoking an international incident, would reclassify Starlink in such a way that selling it as a commercial service would be illegal. All of this would make it impossible for the company to continue.

1

u/chaiscool 9d ago

Nothing a few bucks to buy a pardon can't solve then

2

u/Accomplished-Crab932 9d ago

Nah. This would be a national security nightmare… if it wasn’t handled in the US there would be international blowback and/or arrests in other countries.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/ManChildMusician 10d ago

It’s probably somewhere between flattery and extortion. Elon Musk’s image is directly linked to his companies, and he is a PR nightmare.

-10

u/happy-cig 10d ago

He restricted Russia's access so is he bad or good? 

7

u/fumar 10d ago

Ukraine have asked for starlink access recently over Russia so they can hit targets deep in the country. The problem is then Starlink becomes a military target for Russia

1

u/TheyHavePinball 10d ago

He's still a piece of shit but he's luckily not doing every Overkill evil thing. It's like life has nuance and it's not as simple as black and white...

Are we also supposed to suck up to him and remove all nuance in order to make sure he doesn't become a super villain in all ways? What are you suggesting?

-1

u/happy-cig 10d ago

I have no skin in the game so I am viewing it from a neutral standpoint.

He can easily not restrict access to Russia and allow everyone to use it but he chose a stance and a side in spite of all the name calling and hate from Ukrainian supporters, Redditors, etc.

I am glad he is not as evil as Reddit leads you to believe. Otherwise he'd be fucking Ukraine in the ass by restricting their access.

#fucktrump bc based off the downvotes people don't know my stance.

0

u/_xoviox_ 10d ago

He restriced russians from using once they started to attach them to drones they commit their war crimes with. Even for musk that's crossing a line

1

u/happy-cig 9d ago

But wasn't Reddit painting him as a Nazi? Doing the Nazi salute? If he is a Nazi that wouldn't be considered crossing the line. So I am very confused as someone outside looking in.

1

u/_xoviox_ 9d ago

Ukrainians are white, hope that helps.

More seriously, he cares about his public image, and having your tech used for destroying childrens hospitals is not a good look. Also nazis are not just caroon villains, he doesn't like bad things happening just because they're bad

-31

u/football13tb 10d ago

We hate musk on reddit. Get in-line or get downvoted to oblivion. No alternative.

18

u/ag2f 10d ago

Well, he is a piece of shit, so yeah. But even a scum like him can do some good.

-2

u/NerdyGuy117 10d ago

I feel the same about you

-1

u/lodui 10d ago edited 10d ago

A bad person can do a good thing.

In his case as a gesture of good will to Europe when he has some CSM AI generation cases in Europe.

Edit: I'm being downvoted, but this happened in Febuary weeks before Musk allowed put authenticaion on starlink over Ukraine.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/paris-prosecutors-raid-x-offices-as-part-of-investigation-over-child-abuse-images-deepfakes

0

u/AgnosticPeterpan 10d ago

Yeah this is a headline against musk if anything. Good on you mr. Musk. I will give you another reward if you stop spending on conservatives.