Elon Musk told Pentagon he spoke to Russian President Putin directly: Report

NEW YORK – Billionaire Elon Musk told Pentagon officials during a call about the

satellite-based Internet which his SpaceX company supplies to Ukraine’s military

that he had spoken personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the New Yorker reported.

Mr Musk volunteered the information during an October 2022 conversation with Mr Colin Kahl, then the Pentagon’s top policy official, about Ukrainian forces losing connection to Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s Starlink service as they entered territory contested by Russia, the magazine said on Monday.

“My inference was that he was getting nervous that Starlink’s involvement was increasingly seen in Russia as enabling the Ukrainian war effort, and was looking for a way to placate Russian concerns,” Mr Kahl told the New Yorker.

Mr Musk did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Mr Kahl, who returned to a position at Stanford University in July, also did not respond to requests for comment.

“We’re aware of the coverage and interest in this and the department does contract with Starlink for services of this type,” US Defence Department spokesman Jeff Jurgensen said in an e-mail.

“As we have also stated, due to the critical nature of these systems, we have not released additional details regarding specific capabilities, contracts or partners at this time.”

Last October, Mr Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive,

denied that he had spoken to Mr Putin.

In a post on Twitter, the social media platform he has since renamed X, the billionaire wrote that he had spoken to the Russian President only once, roughly 18 months earlier, about space.

The magazine report revives the controversy that erupted after Mr Musk posted what he described as peace plans that the Kremlin praised and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised.

Soon thereafter, Ukrainian troops reported Starlink outages and Mr Musk threatened to stop funding Ukraine’s access to the service.

SpaceX briefly requested that the United States and its allies foot more of the bill for Starlink in Ukraine, only for Mr Musk to reverse his position and pledge to continue funding the initiative.

In June, the US Defence Department announced a contract with the closely held company.
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