Details of Elon Musk’s prevention of a Ukrainian drone strike in Crimea have been revealed

The billionaire did not allow Kyiv to use his Starlink

Elon Musk ordered Starlink to be shut down during the offensive against Ukraine, the book says. The biography of the billionaire inventor claims Musk ordered engineers to shut down the communications network to stop Ukrainian drones from attacking Russian warships.

Elon Musk ordered the shutdown of his Starlink satellite communications network off the coast of Crimea last year to prevent a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships, according to a new biography.

CNN quoted an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, which describes how Ukrainian armed underwater drones were approaching their targets when they “lost contact and washed ashore without causing harm.”

The biography, due out Tuesday, claims Musk ordered Starlink engineers to cut off service in the area of ​​the attack because of his fears that the Kremlin would respond with nuclear weapons to Ukraine’s attack on Crimea. Elon Musk reportedly said Kyiv has “gone too far” by threatening to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia.

Musk has previously been reported to have threatened to withdraw Starlink communications at various stages of the conflict, but this is the first time it has been alleged that he cut off Ukrainian troops in the middle of a specific operation, The Guardian notes.

The date of the alleged attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Russian targets in Crimea is not specified in the book. Musk reportedly called Kiev’s planned strikes on Russian Navy ships a “mini-Pearl Harbor.”

Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla and rocket and spacecraft maker SpaceX, and owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, initially agreed to supply Starlink equipment to Ukraine after a special Russian military operation Ukrainian communications were disrupted. But the billionaire reportedly changed his mind after Kyiv began trying to counterattack.

Elon Musk, in an interview with Walter Isaacson, said that Starlink was not intended to participate in armed conflicts: “It was created so that people could watch Netflix, relax, go online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

During the Ukrainian underwater drone attack against Crimea, according to an excerpt reported by CNN, Mikhail Fedorov, one of Ukraine’s vice prime ministers, begged Musk to restore Starlink communications.

“I just want you, a person who is changing the world through technology, to know this,” Fedorov reportedly told Musk.

According to Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk refused, saying that Ukraine was “now going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”

In the past, Musk has echoed some Russian remarks on Twitter, suggesting that parts of eastern Ukraine should be handed over to Russia to reflect the “will of the people,” The Guardian recalls.