Did Musk disconnect Starlink near Crimea, which led to the disruption of the attack on the Russian navy: the billionaire gave an answer
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he did not instruct his employees to shut down the Starlink satellite network off the coast of occupied Crimea. He pointed out that the Starlink network allegedly did not work in that area. Earlier, it was reported that Musk tried to turn off Starlink to prevent an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
“These Starlink regions were not activated. SpaceX has not deactivated anything,” he wrote.
This is how Musk responded to accusations that he had shut down the Starlink satellite network near Crimea and said that he had not given such instructions because the network was not working in that area. He also responded to a post by NFTech co-founder Mario Navfal, who suggested that Musk “could have prevented a nuclear war.”
“Elon Musk secretly instructed his engineers to shut down the Starlink satellite communications network during a major Ukrainian offensive. This action was taken to deliberately prevent a surprise attack by Ukraine on the Russian navy,” Navfal said in his post.
Elon Musk said that Ukrainian government agencies have requested the activation of the Starlink satellite network all the way to the city of Sevastopol, which is temporarily occupied by Russia.
“Obviously, the goal was to sink most of the Russian fleet that is anchored there. If I had agreed to their request, SpaceX would have become a clear accomplice to a major military act and escalation of the conflict,” the businessman wrote.
What preceded the scandal
An excerpt from the book, provided by CNN, suggests that last year Elon Musk ordered his engineers to disable the Starlink satellite network off the coast of Crimea in a covert manner. This was done to prevent a possible Ukrainian attack on the Russian Navy.
Musk was afraid of a possible nuclear response from Russia and had conversations with high-ranking Russian officials, which reinforced this fear.
