At the weekend a billionaire was taken to task on social media for not doing enough to help in a time of need. That’s arguably not that interesting as things like this happen daily.
What made this exchange notable was that it was between the chief executive officer at Starlink, Elon Musk and the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov.
In a tweet to Musk, Federov wrote “…while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.”
And wouldn’t you know it, the tweet worked, albeit a day later.
On Sunday Musk responded to Federov stating that Starlink was now active in Ukraine and that more terminals were en route to the nation.
This is not the first time Musk has responded to a nation in need. Following a volcanic eruption in the Pacific Ocean this year, Musk sent 50 Starlink terminals to Tonga to help connect remote villages.
Meanwhile Federov appears to be using Twitter to reach out to Silicon Valley bigwigs. Not only that, the vice prime minister is also using the platform to help raise awareness about the various actions internet firms are taking against Russia. The official even went so far as to share cryptocurrency wallet addresses for donations.
Stand with the people of Ukraine
Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Ethereum. Bitcoin and Tether (USDTtrc20)BTC — 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH — 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
USDT (trc20) — TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022
Among the companies Federov has tweeted at are Google, Netflix and YouTube. The official wants these services to suspended access in Russia.
With services such as SWIFT already suspended and myriad other sanctions in place, the screws are being put to Russia. How successful these endeavours will be remains to be seen.
