Ukraine awared U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk its highest civilian honor for nationals of another country on Friday in recognition of his work to defend Ukrianian lives and liberty and strengthening U.S.-Ukrainian ties. File photo by Francis Chung/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk was awarded Ukraine's highest civilian honor for nationals of another country Friday in recognition of his work to defend Ukrianian lives and liberty and strengthening U.S.-Ukrainian ties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a decree said the "entrepreneur, engineer, head of SpaceX and Tesla," was being given the Order of Freedom award "for outstanding personal merits in protecting people's lives and freedom, and developing relations between the peoples of Ukraine and the United States of America."
The honor puts Musk in the company of British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanual Macron and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, all of whom are recent Order of Freedom recipients.
Wednesday's announcement came after Musk shipped terminals for his Starlink satellite Internet constellation to Ukraine to keep the country online in the early stages of the war amid damage and destruction of the country's terrestrial Internet infrastructure by invading Russian forces and more recently threw a wrench into Russia's battlefield communications by cutting them off from Starlink.
