Putin Hails Musk as Kremlin Rejects Zelensky’s Ceasefire Offer
Vladimir Putin called Elon Musk “a real genius” on Wednesday and said Russia was in “close contact” with him on satellites, during the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow. The Kremlin continues to reject the full or partial ceasefire Volodymyr Zelensky has offered, the Institute for the Study of War reports. Russia fired one ballistic missile and 88 drones at Ukraine overnight into Wednesday.
The praise lands awkwardly in Kyiv. Ukraine’s military suffered Starlink outages last week that Musk has admitted SpaceX caused deliberately. Russia’s rival Rassvet network has only a couple of dozen satellites to Starlink’s roughly 13,000. ISW says Moscow’s terms still include rolling Nato back to its 1997 borders. In London, John Healey announced £10bn of loans and export guarantees for Ukraine, which Zelensky called “a truly strong and very timely step”. ISW adds that Ukraine’s long-range strikes are forcing Russia to move its data infrastructure.