Putin Praises Phone-Buddy Musk

But no mention of the Russian fleet that Musk saved

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Tech billionaire Musk has predicted that Ukraine will fail against Russia’s superior numbers, despite the fact that Ukraine outnumbers Russia’s troops and has an economy that is supplying it with all the sinews of war.

But it was not for his war-time genius that Putin recently declared that Musk is an “outstanding person”; Putin says his SpaceX company has become a key player in space transportation.

The SpaceX technology was developed under contract with NASA and was purchased by Musk some years ago. NASA has not to my knowledge been singled out for equal praise by Putin.

NASA did provide a nice public service for Russia though. Its lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) spacecraft photographed a new crater on the surface of the moon. It said that the crater was the likely the impact site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission: “The new crater is about 10 meters in diameter. Since this new crater is close to the Luna-25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor.”

NASA got no thanks at all from Russia.

But a recent book has brought to the media’s attention the fact that Musk intervened in a Ukrainian military operation by cutting off the Starlink service that guided sea drones closing in on the Russian fleet.

Walter Issacson has written a new book on Musk.

The Russian warships that were subsequently spared went on to rain missiles down on Ukrainian cities, killing women and children.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, confirmed that Musk’s intervention led to the deaths of civilians, calling them “the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego. By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian fleet via Starlink interference, [Musk] allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, and children were killed.”

In Ukraine’s drone strikes, civilians do not die. Ukraine has demonstrated that drone warfare can be directed at military targets alone. But this information is…