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The US Senate wants answers over Starlink's Ukrainian satellite internet denial

<p>The US Senate Armed Services Committee is investigating <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/ukrainian-official-claims-elon-musk-cost-lives-by-refusing-starlink-access-during-a-drone-operation-165926481.html">Elon Musk's decision[/url] to not extend Starlink satellite internet coverage to enable a Ukraine attack on Russian warship near Crimea, <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-14/elon-musk-s-denial-of-ukraine-s-starlink-request-prompts-senate-query?sref=10lNAhZ9&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall">Bloomberg[/url] has reported. &quot;The committee is aggressively probing this issue from every angle,&quot; said chairman Jack Reed in a statement, adding that the incident exposed &quot;serious national-security liability issues.&quot; The panel is still gathering information, and has not yet launched a formal investigation.&nbsp;</p><p>The Ukraine Starlink incident was revealed in an Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, via a disputed excerpt stating that Musk deactivated Starlink access close to the Crimean coast to prevent a Ukrainian attack on the fleet.&nbsp;</p><span id="end-legacy-contents"></span><p>However, Musk said that Starlink was not active in those areas because of US sanctions on Russia, so SpaceX had nothing to disable. In a recent <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKqJ5-kkUGk">podcast[/url], he said would have extended Starlink to Crimea if President Biden had ordered him to do so — but he didn't receive any such order.</p><p>Rather, Musk said he denied Ukraine's request to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. &quot;If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,&quot; Musk <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1699917639043404146">wrote on X[/url]. (The disputed excerpt will be <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/ukrainian-official-claims-elon-musk-cost-lives-by-refusing-starlink-access-during-a-drone-operation-165926481.html">changed[/url] in future copies of the book.)</p><p>Nevertheless, senators questioned why the decision was made by Musk, rather than government officials. &quot;Neither Elon Musk, nor any private citizen, can have the last word when it comes to US national security,&quot; Reed said. At the time of Ukraine's request, SpaceX received no US payments for its Ukraine Starlink operations, but it now has Pentagon funding.&nbsp;</p><p>The probe was announced just ahead of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to the US and meeting with President Biden, set for next week. On top of Starlink, SpaceX is a major US contractor, launching spy satellites for the Defense Department .&nbsp;</p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-us-senate-wants-answers-over-starlinks-ukrainian-satellite-internet-denial-091047225.html?src=rss

Source: The US Senate wants answers over Starlink's Ukrainian satellite internet denial (https://www.engadget.com/the-us-senate-wants-answers-over-starlinks-ukrainian-satellite-internet-denial-091047225.html?src=rss)