The New Yorker reported that Elon Musk informed Pentagon officials on a teleconference discussing SpaceX’s provision of satellite internet to the Ukrainian military that he had spoken personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Monday’s report in the magazine, Musk made the remark in an October chat with Colin Kahl, then the Pentagon’s senior policy official, regarding the disconnection of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Starlink service when Ukrainian forces reached territory held by Russia.
To appease Russian concerns, Kahl told the New Yorker, “my inference was that he was getting nervous that Starlink’s involvement was increasingly seen in Russia as enabling the Ukrainian war effort.”
When asked for comment via email, Musk did not immediately answer. Formerly of Stanford University, Kahl returned there last month but did not immediately reply to requests for comment. When asked for response, the Pentagon’s official spokeswoman also remained silent.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX, denied having spoken with Putin in October. The billionaire spoke about his one and only conversation with the Russian president on space in a post on Twitter, which he has now renamed X.
The dispute surrounding Musk’s peace proposals, which the Kremlin praised and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy opposed, has been reignited by the magazine piece. Soon after, Musk threatened to suspend paying Ukraine’s access to Starlink after Ukrainian military reported problems with the service.
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