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Elon Musk said China clearly disapproved of his decision to send SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine.
The billionaire told Financial Times in a recent interview that Beijing asked for him to promise he wouldn’t sell Starlink in China.
In February — two days after Russia invaded Ukraine — Musk sent Ukraine a shipment of Starlink satellite internet dishes. It was the first of many shipments to the country that has helped Ukraine stay connected amid Russia’s attacks and a hack on the satellite provider for its military.
Early on, Ukraine officials and military leaders praised the move, with a US general saying Starlink «totally destroyed Putin’s information campaign» and attempts to silence Ukraine President Zelenskyy.
But recently, FT reported that Ukrainian forces have faced some outages of their Starlink devices on the frontlines in recent weeks. Roman Sinicyn, a co-ordinator at a foundation that donates Starlink systems to the Ukrainian armed forces, told the publication the outages are the result of SpaceX representatives attempting to prevent Russians from using the technology.
Since, Musk has also activated Starlink in Iran amid widespread protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini who died in police custody.
