The revelation of Elon Musk shutting down Ukrainian access to Starlink satellite communication services has stirred controversy within the Kyiv establishment, with a senior official accusing the SpaceX CEO of committing a malevolent act.
CNN recently shared an excerpt from the forthcoming biography book ‘Elon Musk,’ in which Musk disclosed to author Walter Isaacson that he instructed Starlink engineers to terminate satellite internet access upon discovering Ukraine’s plans to launch drone attacks on the Russian fleet near Crimea last year. The drones, he mentioned, “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.” The book is set to release soon.
Musk voiced his concerns about being inadvertently drawn into the conflict, emphasizing that allowing Ukrainians to initiate an attack could provoke nuclear retaliation from Russia.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, addressing Musk on social media platform X, accused him of causing civilian deaths and described it as “the price of a cocktail of ignorance and a big ego.” Podolyak questioned why some individuals were fervently defending war criminals and their intent to commit murder, suggesting that they were complicit in evil.
Responding to excerpts shared by a user on X, Musk explained that if he had complied with the Ukrainian government’s request, SpaceX would have faced retaliation. He mentioned, “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol, with 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.”
Musk had donated over 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine after Russia damaged much of the country’s infrastructure at the onset of the war in February 2022. In October of the same year, Musk informed the Pentagon that SpaceX could no longer afford to fund the service and requested the Biden administration to cover the cost, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Earlier this year, the US and European governments negotiated a deal with Musk, covering the expenses for an additional 100,000 Starlink satellite dishes to be sent to Ukraine.
Post Your Comments