Senate Democrats demand that Musk preserve data on Starlink in Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
U.S. Senate Democrats asked Elon Musk to preserve documents concerning Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine. They plan to investigate SpaceX's role in the war.
Democrats on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to “preserve all documents, messages and electronically stored information” related to the company’s Starlink and Starshield systems in Ukraine. This was stated in a letter published on Friday, November 13. UNN reports this with reference to Bloomberg.
Details
“Recent restrictions on these services, which emerged as Russia continues to strike Ukrainian civilians, have disrupted critically important air defense capabilities, endangered American personnel and raised serious questions about SpaceX’s control over critical communications capabilities,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons wrote in a letter to Musk.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the letter. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday evening, November 13.
“The United States cannot allow critical national security capabilities to be subject to opaque decision-making or unilateral disruption without government authorization and accountability,” the senators’ letter said.
Supplement
Democrats, who secured at least eight seats in the Senate, pledged to make the company’s role in the war in Ukraine a key issue when the new Congress convenes in January.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that restrictions had again emerged on Starshield internet terminals used by troops on the front lines to deter Russian attacks. The development threatened a repeat of last month’s situation, when Ukraine reported similar restrictions on the use of the system provided by SpaceX.