Ukraine responds to Musk’s cynical statement on approved US aid
22 April 2024 12:07
Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak reacted to the cynical statement by US billionaire Elon Musk about the approved US aid to Ukraine, in which he indirectly accused the US government of continuing the “eternal war,” Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
Musk commented on the publication of David Sachs, an entrepreneur who spreads pro-Russian narratives in the West and advocates for the cessation of aid to Ukraine. The latter wrote that the money allocated to Ukraine would be enough to “pay back exactly half of the funds for the summer counter-offensive”.
In response, Elon Musk hinted that “children are dying in the trenches” because of the continued support for Ukraine.
“What worries me most is that there is no exit strategy, but only an eternal war in which children die in the trenches from artillery guns, or charging machine guns and snipers in minefields,”
– he wrote.
Reaction of the Presidential Office
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, said on microblog X that “when one of the global opinion leaders speaks about the alleged lack of an exit strategy, one has to wonder again about the lack of simple logic in the modern world”.
According to him, a realistic exit strategy is “blatantly simple” – Russia should withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine, thereby ending the hot phase of the war.
Andriy Yermak’s advisor also said that he “understands that sometimes simple truths are extremely difficult to understand”, but reiterated that Russia must leave Ukrainian territory, return the stolen goods and restore the rule of international law.
“What is so difficult about this? What other exit strategy should be sought/discussed? And is it possible to build something only on injustice?”
– podoliak said.
This is not the first scandalous statement by the American businessman Elon Musk regarding the war in Ukraine.
The day before, Elon Musk spoke out against the adoption of a bill to provide assistance to Ukraine . He called on US citizens to put pressure on their representatives in Congress not to vote for the document.
Musk: helping Ukraine with love for Russia
Elon Musk has repeatedly made ambiguous statements about the Russian-Ukrainian war and even expressed direct sympathy for the aggressors and their leader Putin. For example, Musk has stated that Putin is a “good guy”, he likes Russians, and he would not mind getting a Russian passport. He also suggested holding referendums in the territories occupied by Russia.
As a matter of principle, the businessman allows Russian propaganda to spread on his platform X. It is there, for example, that Carlson‘s recent interview with Putin was published. Musk calls it freedom of speech.
Starlink communications are extremely effective for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but there are problems with this because of Musk’s position. Initially, he declared the free transfer and use of Starlink in Ukraine, but this position changed. Thus, in October 2022, SpaceX announced that it could turn off Starlink for Ukraine, as it could no longer financially “bear” these costs. It all ended up with the Pentagon paying for Starlink for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In addition, there have been reports that Elon Musk manages Starlink at his own discretion, which sometimes affects the military situation in Ukraine. In particular, CNN, referring to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biographical book about Musk, reported an episode when Musk turned off Starlink near the Crimean coast to prevent Ukrainian naval drones from attacking Russian ships. It worked and the attack was thwarted.
Also, on the eve of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counter-offensive in 2023, there was an incident with the restriction of Starlink communication for Ukrainian drones. SpaceX then confirmed this step and said that their Internet was “never intended to be used as a weapon”.
As you can see, the tendency is that Starlink usually stops working to save the occupiers’ lives and equipment from Ukrainian strikes. Therefore, the Ukrainian military is constantly forced to come up with different schemes for using Starlink connections to avoid giving Musk any reason to accuse them of using their Internet for offensive military operations.
