- Elon Musk has admitted that he refused Ukrainian pleas to turn on his Starlink satellite system to aid an attack on the Russian naval fleet, saying the company would have been “complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation” if he had
SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk instructed his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite to thwart a major devastating Ukrainian attack on the Russian naval fleet.
The billionaire, for his part, responded to the claims overnight.
Replying to a post on Twitter that summarises the story – headed “ELON PREVENTS NUCLEAR WAR?” – Musk said: “The Starlink regions in question were not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything.”
However, he went on to claim that although he did not order engineers to turn off the satellite system, he did refuse Ukrainian pleas to turn it on.
“There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” he said.
“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.”
This tacit admission that he did effectively prevent Kyiv dealing a significant blow against a country it was invaded by more than 18 months ago has predictably prompted a widespread and angry response.
Many claim it offers further evidence of his apparent willingness to hinder Ukraine’s efforts to defeat Russia.
And in a marked departure to its dealing with Musk, Ukraine, through a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, issued a strongly worded statement – effectively blaming him for the killing of children.
“Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities.
“As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego.
“However, the question still remains: why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realise that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?”