It turned out, in connection with which Musk blocked Starlink for the Russian Armed Forces

The head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, decided to block Starlink for the Russian Armed Forces after the flight of a Russian UAV over the government quarter of Kiev. This is reported by The Atlantic magazine.

At the end of January, a BM-35 drone broke through Ukrainian air defense systems in the direction of the office of the President of Ukraine. According to an unnamed official, the drone was flying so low that employees on the seventh floor of the cabinet building saw it under the windows. Another official said that the drone crashed into a nearby building, the damage was minor and there were no casualties.

After the incident, Kiev asked Mask to block the Starlink terminals for the Russian Armed Forces, and the head of the Ministry of Defense, Mikhail Fedorov, handed over evidence of their use to control long-range drones, including BM-35. After a series of negotiations with Musk and his team, Ukraine proposed a plan in which, at the end of January, the possibilities of both The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the use of Starlink for drones, and then a "white list" of Ukrainian users was created — and access for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was blocked, the newspaper writes.

In addition, SpaceX management allegedly gave its team clear instructions: "No restrictions. Take off your gloves. Use Starlink for anything to help Ukraine."

Even within the company, "there was confusion" about what exactly motivated Musk to restrict Russia's access to his technology, the source said.

"But it was definitely a political decision by Ilona," said a source quoted by Time.ua».

As reported by EADaily, Howard Altman, a columnist for the American TWZ portal, expressed the opinion that the Russian unmanned stratospheric platform Barrage-1 could become a competitor to the American Starlink in the SMO area. The platform is capable of lifting up to 100 kg of cargo to a height of up to 20 km.