- As per a new biography of Musk he refused to grant Ukraine permission to use his Starlink satellite network to prevent a drone attack on Russian warships last year.
- An extract of the book, described how armed submarine drones were approaching a Russian fleet near the Crimean coast when they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly”
- “By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian fleet via Starlink interference, Musk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, and children are being killed,”- Ukraine claims.
- The book alleges that Mr. Musk ordered Starlink engineers to turn off the service in the area of the attack because of his concern about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- “The Starlink regions in question were not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” the billionaire claimed in another post.
A senior Ukrainian official has accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of “committing evil” after a new biography revealed details about how he refused to grant Ukraine permission to use his Starlink satellite network to prevent a drone attack on Russian warships last year.
Twitter/X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is dipping his toes into the treacherous issue of diplomatic relations, with an aide close to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky slamming the billionaire for his actions in response to Russia’s invasion.
The particular criticism surrounds the use of SpaceX’s Starlink communication satellites in Ukraine, something Musk provided the embattled country not long after the war commenced in February 2022.
In a statement on X, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that Mr. Musk’s interference led to the deaths of civilians. “This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego,” Mr. Podolyak wrote.
“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian fleet via Starlink interference, Musk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, and children are being killed,” he tweeted.
Mr. Podolyak’s statement comes in the wake of claims in a new biography of the tech billionaire. An extract of the book, published by a news agency, described how armed submarine drones were approaching a Russian fleet near the Crimean coast when they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly”.
The book alleges that Mr. Musk ordered Starlink engineers to turn off the service in the area of the attack because of his concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond with nuclear weapons to a Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied Crimea.
However, in a post on X, Mr. Musk has denied accusations that he had turned off the Starlink network in the area. Instead, he claimed that he had simply not agreed to a request from Ukraine to activate it all the way to the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. He said that he did not want his SpaceX company to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation”.
“The Starlink regions in question were not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” the billionaire claimed in another post.
Notably, Walter Isaacson’s new biography, simply titled ‘Elon Musk’, officially releases on September 12.
(With inputs from agencies)
