Musk biographer: The Ukrainian Armed Forces mistakenly believed that Starlink worked in the Crimea region

Kyiv believed that the coverage of Starlink satellites covered the coast of Crimea, but after learning that this was not the case, he asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to turn on access to satellites. Walter Isaacson, the author of a new biography of the billionaire, spoke about this.

CNN previously cited an excerpt from his book reportedthat Musk ordered to disable access to Starlink near Crimea to disrupt the UAF attack on Russian warships. Approaching the Russian ships, the Ukrainian submarine drones were said to have “lost contact and were washed ashore without causing any harm.” And Politico claimedthat Musk turned off access to satellites allegedly after a conversation with Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, who warned of a “nuclear response” in the event of an attack on Crimea.

Musk later denied this information, stating that in “the regions in question” Starlink was not activated, and therefore “SpaceX did not deactivate anything.” At the same time, the billionaire confirmed that he had previously received a request to activate Starlink “all the way to Sevastopol.” He added that agreeing to do so would mean being involved in a “major act of war and an escalation of the conflict.”

Isaacson said on X (formerly Twitter) today that the UAF thought Starlink coverage was on all the way to Crimea, but it wasn’t.

“They asked Musk to turn it on to attack their unmanned submarine against the Russian fleet. Musk did not turn it on because he believed, probably correctly, that it would lead to a major war,” he wrote.

Musk announced the start of Starlink’s work in Ukraine at the end of February 2022, with a corresponding request to him previously addressed by Ukrainian officials. The network is designed to provide broadband Internet access.

In February 2023, SpaceX restricted access to Starlink to control Ukrainian drones, saying that the Ukrainian military’s use of Starlink “as a weapon” was not part of the terms of the agreement. In March, Musk said that Starlink was being used to provide communications in Ukraine, but that it should not escalate the conflict.