Musk denied information about shutting down Starlink to disrupt the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that he did not limit the operation of Starlink in the Crimea region. According to him, the service was not initially activated in this region.

“The Starlink regions in question have not been activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Musk 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.”

The fact that Musk ordered access to Starlink near Crimea to be cut off, September 7 informed CNN with a link to an excerpt from a new biography of the billionaire authored by Walter Isaacson. According to him, the attack involved Ukrainian underwater drones filled with explosives. Approaching the Russian ships, they “lost contact and were thrown ashore without causing harm.” As Isaacson writes, Musk feared that Russia might use nuclear weapons after the Ukrainian attack.

Musk announced the start of Starlink operation in Ukraine at the end of February 2022; Ukrainian officials had previously approached him with a corresponding request. 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 statedthat Starlink is used to provide communications in Ukraine, but it should not cause an escalation of the conflict.

Since the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Russian authorities have repeatedly pointed out the use of civilian satellites in Ukraine for military purposes. In the fall of 2022 at the Russian Foreign Ministry statedthat they could become “legitimate targets” of Russia. The White House warned Moscow of retaliatory actions and said it would continue to use its funds in Ukraine.