The Private Sector on the Frontline - Big Tech and the Risky Blurring of Commercial and Security Interests
Published on February 4, 2025
On February 26, 2022, two days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, sent an urgent plea to Elon Musk to provide Internet access to the country through his Starlink system. The invasion, which Russia had preceded with a campaign of cyberattacks, had seriously disrupted Ukraine’s digital networks. By the very next day, Musk responded that Starlink was active in Ukraine and that the company would soon be sending more ground terminals to the country.