Elon Musk did not give Kiev access to the Starlink network "to avoid escalation"

2023-09-08 22:54:21, Kosova & Bota CNA

Elon Musk did not give Kiev access to the Starlink network "to avoid

Billionaire Elon Musk has said he has refused to give Kiev access to the Starlink communications network in the Crimea region to avoid participating in a "major act of war".

He said that Kiev has sent an urgent request for the activation of Starlink in Sevastopol, a region where a large port of the Russian Navy is located.

Musk made these comments after a recently published book - a biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson - mentioned suspicions that Musk disabled Starlink to avoid a drone attack on Russian ships.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, believes that such an action has opened the way for Russian attacks and has accused the American entrepreneur of "doing evil".

According to him, since then Russian ships have carried out deadly attacks on civilians.

"By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy parts of the Russian army, through interference with Starlink, Elon Musk has allowed this fleet to launch Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities."

The recently published book mentions suspicions that Musk blocked Ukraine's access to Starlink because he feared that an attack on the Russian fleet in Crimea could provoke a nuclear response from the Kremlin.

The Starlink terminals connect to SpaceX equipment satellites - also owned by Musk - in orbit and have been essential to maintaining Ukraine's access to the internet as the war has destroyed some of its infrastructure.

SpaceX has sent thousands of Starlink satellite dishes to Ukraine shortly after the start of the war in February last year.

In the new book, Musk said SpaceX didn't deactivate anything because nothing was activated over those regions in the first place.

"There has been an urgent request from government authorities to activate Starlink to Sevastopol. If I were to accept the request, then SpaceX would be involved in a major act of violence and escalation of the conflict."

The former Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that "if what Isaacson wrote in the book is true, it seems that Musk is the only adequate mind in North America."

Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and seven years later launched the war in the rest of Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine started on February 24, 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine.

The West has responded to Russia, hitting the economy of this country with harsh sanctions.

As a result of the war, thousands of people have died and millions more have been displaced from their homes./ REL