Starlink spending on Ukraine used by Elon Musk to defend against 'moral idiocy' comments over his war-ending ideas

Only a couple of days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine when the Internet infrastructure there started getting destroyed, Elon Musk immediately used the occasion to be Ukraine's knight in white shining armor and give it the gift of Starlink. SpaceX's satellite Internet shone down on the war-torn country as Elon tweeted that "more terminals are en route."

Tesla's CEO just reminded his Twitter audience those Ukraine-saving chops, informing them that so far SpaceX has spent no less than US$80 million on providing satellite Internet for the country's wartime needs. He resorted to this not-so-humble brag as he went in hot water again for suggesting several eyebrow-raising ideas for ending the conflict, chief among which is leaving Crimea to Russia in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

He even made a poll asking his Twitter followers to vote whether "the will of the people who live in the Donbas & Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine," prompting sharp rebukes from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and other officials. Besides the charitable Starlink endeavor, Elon Musk mentioned in his defense that one way or another his ideas will be the ultimate outcome of the war, and he is just suggesting them to shorten the amount of lives lost in the process.

Hitting back at "moral idiocy" comments by frequent Putin critic Garry Kasparov, he again gave Starlink as an example of his goodwill towards Ukraine: "We gave Starlinks to Ukraine & lost $80M+ in doing so, while putting SpaceX & myself at serious risk of Russian cyberattack." "What have you done besides tweet," continued Musk, despite the fact that the former world chess champion has been at it at a significant risk to his own wellbeing for a good while now.

Besides Ukraine, Musk recently said he is activating satellite Internet over Iran as well, citing the civil unrest there and the crackdown on connectivity that followed, in an apparent attempt to position Starlink as a global democracy beacon. 

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