When Ukraine sent submarine drones to conduct a sneak attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in 2022, its Starlink satellite connection suddenly went dark. Without that connection, the drones went offline, and the Russian ships remained unharmed. Elon Musk, who owns Starlink, may be behind the sudden connectivity loss, according to CNN reporting.
This story, which CNN claims comes from a soon-to-be-released biography of Elon Musk, suggests that the billionaire intentionally shut off the connection because he was worried that the Ukrainian attack would escalate the war, and that Putin would respond with nuclear warheads. (READ MORE from Mason Stauffer: The Fight Between Okinawans and the American Airstrip)
In a recent Twitter thread, however, Musk characterizes the incident differently. He says that Starlink — a company that provides internet via satellites — was never active in Crimea. Though Kyiv asked him to turn it on, he didn’t, saying, according to NBC, that Ukraine’s “obvious intent [was] to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX [Musk’s space-exploration company, which maintains the satellites] would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Musk’s Decision Stirs Controversy
In the new biography — set to be released Sept. 12 — Musk defended his decision. CNN reports that he told the author: “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Top Ukrainian official Mykhailo Podolyak sees Musk’s decision as one of not pacifism but hostility. Podolyak tweeted, “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.”
Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev praised Musk’s decision, tweeting that “If what Isaacson [Musk’s biographer] has written in his book is true, then it looks like Musk is the last adequate mind in North America.” (RELATED from Mason Stauffer: Meta’s Epidemic of Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ Propaganda)
This is not the first time the importance of Musk’s Starlink network in Ukraine has been in the news.
In October of last year, Musk announced that his company could not continue to fund the Ukrainian Starlink network for free, as it had been doing up to that point. Soon after, he reversed course and kept the network running from his company’s pocket. Earlier this year, however, the Defense Department cut a deal with Musk in which where the Pentagon agreed to purchase the relevant satellites.
Musk’s satellite network becoming critical infrastructure for Ukraine has thrown him into the crossfire of criticism for his alleged decision and the Ukrainian lives put on the line because of it. When the biography is released, American and Ukrainian analysts will surely scoop it up to determine what happened in the submarine raid last year, and Musk’s name will be dragged through the headlines once again.