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Dave Asmus
@asmus__dave
Political Science | Classical Liberal
Security & Foreign Policy | European 🇪🇺
Democracy • Deterrence • 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 🇹🇼
The Invisible Hand
Joined November 2021
575 Following
239 Followers
773 Posts
Let me clear up some common misconceptions regarding Starlinkand Starshield.
1. As of October 21, Starlink's Terms of Service do not impose a blanket prohibition on military use, although its incorporated Acceptable Use Policy restricts military activities and drone operations without appropriate authorization. Given Ukraine's extensive and publicly acknowledged military use of Starlink over several years, it stretches credulity to suggest that SpaceX was unaware of or had not acquiesced to at least some military applications. It is also striking that the disruption coincided with disagreements over Ukraine's policy of targeting Russian refineries and data centers, as well as Musk's tweet that "This has gone too far."
2. While the Pentagon exercises operational authority over U.S.-procured Starshield services, SpaceX owns and operates the underlying Starlink network and infrastructure on which certain Starshield services depend. The precise division of technical and contractual authority remains disputed.
3. SpaceX does not provide Starlink and Starshield services to Ukraine for free. Ukraine, Poland, and Germany pay for Starlink terminals and subscriptions, while Starshield is supplied through U.S. government contractual arrangements. SpaceX is a commercial defense contractor being paid to provide critical military communications services, not a charitable benefactor. Its unilateral restriction of contracted services, if established, could constitute a breach of contract and could expose SpaceX to considerable liability.
4. Full service has not been restored. Ukrainian officials continue to report operational restrictions affecting Starlink and/or Starshield services.
5. Starlink is not the only satellite communications platform available or being developed. Alternatives include Eutelsat OneWeb, GOVSATCOM, and the planned European IRIS2 constellation, although these are not yet complete substitutes for Starlink's capabilities. Nevertheless, they do indicate a willingness to look beyond SpaceX as a provider of these services.
Now with U.S. protection, Russians continue commiting massacres all across Ukraine.
Kyiv.
The American president thinks this is "fine"
Trump: "Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much."
Latest: Zelenskyy tells reporters over WhatsApp that restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink systems remain. Interceptor drones can't function, logistics and operations hobbled. The maximum speed is 161 kph; "exceeding this limit causes the Starlink connection to cut out completely, resulting in the loss of the drone."
He says Ukraine has done tests to determine whether SpaceX is truly facing technical issues, as has been told Kyiv by the US side, or if this is a "deliberate operation... to restrict us, cut us off, and prevent us from defending ourselves and protecting our people, both at the front and among the civilian population."
He says Ukraine "sent a couple of vehicles equipped with Starlink terminals into European Union territory."
"They moved at speeds exceeding 180kph, and the Starlink systems worked perfectly. We have the relevant logs and evidence to prove this."
He adds: "The conclusion is clear: the restrictions are in effect within Ukraine but do not apply within the European Union. In other words, this is a planned operation."
Countries siding with Ukraine are very different from those siding with Russia. They're richer, freer, and more developed, with a freer press, higher test scores, higher IQs, more equality for women, more Christians, and fewer Muslims:
@ZelenskyyUa @markomihkelson Burn every fking refinery to the ground and take a few data centers out along the way. Europe must, as far as possible, offset all the consequences of the treacherous United States. 🇺🇦🤝🇩🇪🇪🇺
Totally not imperialistic.
From a country heavily paying environmentalist groups in the west to force policy to "deindustrialization because environment".
2014 vs today.
Sink every cargo ship or tanker leaving a port in Russia.
BOMB MORE RUSSIAN REFINERIES!!
President Zelenskyy’s comment on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks that the war in Ukraine is at a "strategic stalemate" and that there are now "no prospects for a negotiated settlement":
"You cannot negotiate future economic projects with Russians on the one hand and, on the other, claim that we are in some kind of diplomatic stalemate. We are not in a diplomatic stalemate.
Shut down Russia’s entire economy. Shut Russia's mouth. Stop feeding them through your sales. Impose sanctions on their weapons.
Open Starlink for Ukraine. You opened it when responding to Iran, after all. Everything worked there. Israel completely controlled the skies over Iran. So when you need it to work, it works.
It costs them nothing to help Ukraine. And I said quite frankly: help us protect our skies and gain dominance there.
Then Putin will sit down at the negotiating table. Why? Because he will lose everything. In two or three months, he will lose everything.
And instead, we are waiting for the Chinese to develop an equivalent and hand it over to Russians.
This is not a stalemate - this is called a lack of will."
Three years since October 7, 2023.
We remember the lives stolen by Palestinian Hamas. We honor the heroes. We carry the scars.
And still, we stand.
We rebuild. We live. We choose hope.
Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱
#UNFORGO7TEN
Doctors are now fighting to save the lives of people injured in the Russian strike on Kramatorsk. As of now, 30 people have been confirmed killed, and sadly, that number may rise. The Russian bomb effectively hit two city minibuses. Some of those killed have still not been identified because of the severity of their injuries. My condolences to all their families and loved ones. Another 18 people were injured in the strike. Residential buildings and cars were also damaged.
This strike will not go unanswered. Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and a response from the world is a must. A forceful response – exactly as the Russians deserve for all the deaths they have brought. May all those killed rest in peace.
The death toll is now 33. Right here in a European city. russia needs to be completely isolated from the civilised world.
South Korea sold fuel to Russia using two vessels (Layla and Astoria) under EU/UK sanctions.
Quite a bad look for Seoul as it claims high moral standing in its PoWs spat with Kyiv.
https://t.co/Hi9kJ1UCni
Friedrich Merz wird jetzt also von rechtsaußen und linksaußen dafür kritisiert, dass er in der schwersten Zeit der Ukrainer nach Kyiv reist und seine Solidarität zeigt, weitere Hilfe ankündigt und Putin klarmacht, dass wir uns nicht einschüchtern lassen. Was genau wünschen sich die Kritiker der Ukraine-Hilfe genau? Dass Putin den Krieg gewinnt und dann Millionen Flüchtlinge auch Richtung Deutschland strömen? Dass ein militärisch gestärktes Russland nach einem Sieg weitere Länder angreift? Dass Diktatur über Demokratie siegt? Ich finde: Merz hat recht, dass er genau jetzt in der Ukraine ist!
Palantir CEO Alex Karp on the distillation attacks from Chinese companies against Anthropic:
" How do you think the models got their value? They distilled all the value of IP everywhere, including enterprise everywhere."
Via @CNBC @seemacnbc
France is just a symptom. The ECB is the disease. The ECB intervened aggressively to cap yields in Spain and Italy in 2022. If you protect high-debt countries, you set the wrong incentives for politicians. Fiscal policy will just get worse and worse...
https://t.co/HIlymWsz4u
Kyiv. The moment a russian strike directly hit a school in the Solomianskyi district this morning.
russia is a rotten, terrorist state.
A Russian strike against the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. A rescue operation is underway: crews are putting out the fire and searching for people who may have been trapped inside. All services are deployed. Today in Kyiv, a pharmaceutical company and gas stations were also attacked; in Dnipro, a business center; and in other cities and regions, civilian facilities, businesses, and communications infrastructure were targeted as well. Sadly, people have been killed… My condolences to their families and loved ones. Russia will definitely face a response to this. And every one of Ukraine’s partners must see from this terror, from these strikes, that supporting Ukraine means truly supporting people’s lives – supporting the principle that terror must never be normalized, anywhere. Russia must be held accountable for all of this and face real consequences. I thank everyone who helps Ukraine!
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