President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded the American inventor and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk the Order of Freedom. This is stated in a decree published on the presidential website on 25 August.
The document says the order was conferred for outstanding personal merits in protecting people’s lives and freedom, and for developing relations between the peoples of Ukraine and the United States of America.
“To award the Order of Freedom to MUSK Elon – entrepreneur, engineer, head of the companies "SpaceX" and "Tesla", United States of America,” the document states.
Recently, the President said that Ukraine hopes for Elon Musk’s permission to use Starlink satellite communications for defensive strikes on Russian territory.
Musk believes such strikes would lead to escalation. He supports ending the war rather than continuing it. However, the President believes Musk may change his mind about defensive strikes on Russia when he sees more arguments.
“And this really could lead to a reduction in precisely those capabilities of Russia that allow it to drag out the war, hope for yet another winter of war, and build corresponding plans. Elon Musk has already made such decisive decisions regarding Starlink that helped protect lives. Various people of ours have already been in contact with him. And the President of the United States of America has also worked with him, his team. And we have begun to receive different, more encouraging feedback. We are waiting for the relevant meetings and so on. If no one strongly fuels the corresponding information waves, then I think there may be results,” the head of state suggested.
This year, Musk allowed Starlink to be blocked for Russians. At the same time, earlier he blocked communications for operations by Ukraine’s Defence Forces in Crimea.