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Ukraine Awards Elon Musk Order of Liberty, Highest State Honor Available to Foreigners
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded American businessman and head of SpaceX company Elon Musk the Order of Liberty, the highest Ukrainian state honor that can be bestowed on foreign nationals.
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The award was announced in a presidential decree.
According to the document, Musk received the award for his “outstanding personal merits” in “protecting human life and freedom and developing relations between the peoples of Ukraine and the United States of America.”
Musk’s SpaceX has played a significant role in providing satellite communications to Ukraine through its Starlink network, which has been used extensively for battlefield connectivity.
Earlier this year, restrictions on unauthorized Starlink terminals disrupted Russian military communications and contributed to Ukrainian advances in the Zaporizhzhia region, The Moscow Times reported in February, citing a senior NATO official.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the loss of Starlink significantly weakened Russia’s battlefield command-and-control capabilities, adding that any alternative system deployed by Moscow would likely be less effective.
Russian troops had been using Starlink terminals without authorization. The devices were smuggled from abroad and activated in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
The Pentagon and SpaceX had previously discussed Russia’s unauthorized use of the satellite network, and hundreds of terminals were reportedly disabled in the summer of 2024. However, those measures did not completely eliminate Russian access to the service.
According to the report, following further restrictions on unauthorized terminals, Ukraine’s General Staff recorded a notable decline in Russian assault activity. Russian forces carried out 56 attacks on February 5, compared with roughly 80 to 110 assaults recorded on preceding days.
Recently, Ukraine has sought to expand its authorized use of Starlink for defense-related operations. Zelenskyy said during a meeting with journalists that Kyiv had requested US political approval to extend Starlink access into Russian territory after being informed that SpaceX had initially agreed to such use.
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