US Tech mogul and CEO SpaceX Elon Musk reacted to the circulating claims about not providing access to the satellite over Crimea to Ukraine fearing nuclear escalation saying he avoided to part of a "major act of war" and therefore thwarted Ukrainian drone assault on the Russian forces.
Elon Musk said that an emergency request was received from Ukraine to activate Starlink to Sevastopol — hosting the Russian Navy.
While reacting to the book's claim, Musk said on X that "SpaceX did not deactivate anything because it had not been activated in those regions in the first place."
Starlink is a global network of over 4,000 satellites that serves over 50 countries and has worked as the connective tissue for crucial battlefield communications in Ukraine.
"The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor," he wrote.
"If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation," Musk wrote on his social media platform.
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev promptly tweeted after the book's excerpts made their way to the public: "If what Isaacson has written in his book is true, then it looks like [Elon Musk] is the last adequate mind in North America."
Elon Musk earlier said that while the system had "become the connectivity backbone of Ukraine all the way up to the front lines, we are not allowing Starlink to be used for long-range drone strikes."
He also reiterated the point to Isaacson, asking: "How am I in this war? 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."
The billionaire had urged a truce that Ukrainians and Russians were dying "to gain and lose small pieces of land" and this was not worth their lives.
His comments also drew criticism last year after his proposal of formally recognising Crimea as part of Russia and asking residents of regions controlled by Russia to vote on which country they wanted to be part of.
A top aide of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak has alleged the 52-year-old billionaire of "committing evil" on Twitter — now X — saying “Russian naval vessels had since taken part in deadly attacks on civilians.”
"By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via Starlink interference, Elon Musk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities," Podoliak said.
"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?" he added.
In an interview with his autobiography "Elon Musk," author Walter Isaacson referred to the Russia-Ukraine war by asking, "How am I in this war?"
“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,” Musk Elon said, according to the book.
Musk told Isaacson that he was worried the Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels would provoke the Kremlin into launching a nuclear war.
However, Musk, who is also CEO of X received much criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's top aide over the revelation.
"As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego," the Ukrainian official added.
Russian forces took control of Crimea in 2014 and is home to its warships.
Following the Russia-Ukraine war, the Black Sea fleet launched missile attacks on Ukrainian coastal cities.
Ukraine's digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, confirmed that SpaceX's Starlink satellites are present in Ukraine, providing crucial battlefield communications.
Fedorov requested Starlink capability from Musk on Twitter, and a photo showed over two dozen boxes in a truck.
Musk's decision was discussed in a phone call with President Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and Joint Chiefs of Staff US Army General Mark Milley, according to Isaacson.
He added that Musk was also in a texting conversation with Fedorov, who urged to restore Starlink's connectivity for Ukrainian submarine drones to attack Russia's warship fleet.
Musk replied that "he thought Ukraine was going too far and inviting strategic defeat," according to the book.
"I think if the Ukrainian attacks had succeeded in sinking the Russian fleet, it would have been like a mini Pearl Harbor and led to a major escalation," Elon Musk was quoted in the book as saying. "We did not want to be a part of that."
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