WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Elon Musk reveals that he declined Ukraine’s request to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol last year. According to Musk, he feared being complicit in a “major” act of war.
This billionaire business tycoon made this statement on his social media platform X after CNN cited an excerpt from a new biography of Musk, stating that he ordered the Starlink network to be turned off near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack.
Musk’s post on X – previously known as Twitter – on Thursday night explained that he had no choice but to reject Ukraine’s emergency request to activate Starlink up to Sevastopol. The date of the request was not provided in the excerpt.
Musk wrote, “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, criticized Musk’s decision on X, accusing him of “committing evil” and supporting “war criminals and their desire to commit murder.”
Russia, which annexed the strategically important Crimea peninsula in 2014, maintains its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and has used the fleet to effectively blockade Ukrainian ports since its full-scale invasion in 2022.
The Russian fleet launches cruise missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, while Kyiv has retaliated by attacking Russian ships with maritime drones.
According to CNN, an upcoming biography by Walter Isaacson titled “Elon Musk” reveals that when Ukrainian explosive-laden submarine drones approached the Russian fleet last year, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.”
The biography states that Musk’s decision to disable the Starlink network, which prompted Ukrainian officials to plead for him to turn it back on, was driven by his intense fear of Russia responding to a Ukrainian attack with nuclear weapons.
CNN reports that Musk’s concerns were based on his conversations with senior Russian officials and his worries about a potential “mini-Pearl Harbor” scenario.
In August, a Russian warship suffered significant damage in a Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea naval base at Novorossiysk, marking the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far away from the country’s shores.
Since the start of the war in 2022, SpaceX has been providing Starlink internet service to Ukrainians and the country’s military through private donations and a separate contract with a U.S. foreign aid agency. Starlink is a rapidly expanding network of over 4,000 low Earth orbit satellites.
In June, the Pentagon confirmed that SpaceX’s Starlink has a contract with the Department of Defense to provide satellite services to Ukraine.
When asked about Musk’s decision, Vadym Skybytskyi, an officer in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate GUR, emphasized the need for an investigation and the appointment of a specific group to examine the incident.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon declined to comment on Musk’s decision but stated, “The Department continues to work closely with the commercial industry to ensure that we provide Ukraine with the necessary capabilities to defend themselves.”
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart and Ron Popeski; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
