American billionaire Elon Musk revealed that he refused a Ukrainian request to activate his Starlink satellite network in the coastal city of Sevastopol in Crimea last year for use in an attack on the Russian fleet there, fearing involvement in a major act of war. Musk made these statements in a post on the platform X on Thursday, following CNN's mention of a portion of a new biography that states he ordered the Starlink network to be turned off near the coast of Crimea last year to hinder a rapid attack planned by Ukraine.
Musk added in the post that he had no choice but to reject an emergency request from Ukraine "to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol." He did not specify the date of the Ukrainian request, nor did the biography address this detail. Musk wrote, "The goal was clearly to sink most of the Russian fleet... If I had agreed to their request, SpaceX would clearly have been involved in a major act of war and escalation of the conflict."
Russia, which seized the strategic Crimean Peninsula in 2014, makes Sevastopol the headquarters of its fleet and has used it to blockade Ukrainian ports since its full-scale invasion of Kyiv in 2022. The Russian fleet launches cruise missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, while Kyiv carries out attacks on Russian vessels using drone boats.
