Elon Musk declined a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink in Sevastopol, Crimea, last year for fear of being involved in a significant act of war. This decision came to light after an excerpt from a new Musk biography revealed that he ordered the Starlink network to be turned off along the Crimean coast to thwart a Ukrainian surprise attack.
In a late Thursday post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said he had no choice but to reject an emergency request from Ukraine “to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol.” He did not give the date of the request, and the excerpt did not specify it.
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.
Elon Musk
Russia, which took control of Crimea in 2014, houses its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Since its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has effectively blockaded Ukrainian ports using this fleet. The Russian fleet has launched cruise missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, while Kyiv has responded by attacking Russian ships with maritime drones.
According to CNN, Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography “Elon Musk,” set to release from Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, reveals that when Ukrainian explosive-laden submarine drones approached the Russian fleet last year, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.“
Musk’s choice, despite Ukrainian officials’ pleas to reactivate the satellites, was motivated by his intense concern that a Ukrainian assault could trigger a Russian nuclear response. According to the biography, Musk’s decision stemmed from discussions with high-ranking Russian authorities and his apprehensions about a potential “mini-Pearl Harbor,” as reported by CNN. In August, a Ukrainian naval drone attack caused significant damage to a Russian warship at Novorossiysk, marking the Ukrainian navy’s first display of power at such a distance from their own shores.
Since the commencement of the 2022 war, SpaceX, funded by private donations and operating under a distinct contract with a U.S. foreign aid agency, has been supplying Ukrainians and their military with Starlink internet service. Starlink is a rapidly expanding network consisting of over 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. Back in June, the Pentagon announced that SpaceX’s Starlink had secured a Department of Defense contract to procure satellite services for Ukraine.
In response to the reports aired on Ukrainian national television, Vadym Skybytskyi, an officer within the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate GUR, refrained from directly confirming or denying whether Elon Musk had rejected Ukraine’s request. However, he stressed the importance of conducting an investigation and forming a dedicated group to scrutinize the incident.
On the other hand, a spokesperson from the Pentagon declined to comment on Musk’s decision but emphasized the ongoing collaboration with the commercial industry to ensure that Ukraine possesses the necessary capabilities for self-defense.
