Musk 'switched off Starlink in Ukraine over nuclear fears' - updated
Russian officials scared billionaire with 'mini Pearl Harbour' scenario
A new biography, simply titled Elon Musk, claims that the billionaire secretly ordered engineers to turn off the Starlink satellite network near the Crimean coast last year, to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian fleet.
However, since we first published this story author Walter Isaacson has admitted that he got it wrong.
The original claim was that Musk ordered Starlink to be turned off. In reality, the system was never turned on in the area the operation was being conducted.
Isaacson has since clarified, "The Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that [it] would cause a major war."
Musk tweeted his thanks for the correction, and added that Starlink's terms of service ban it from being used for offensive military action, as it is a "civilian system."
The original article is below:
An excerpt from the book, shared with CNN, says that explosive submarine drones "lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly" as they approached Russian ships.
According to author Walter Isaacson, Musk was afraid of a "mini Pearl Harbour," fearing that Russia would respond to the attack with nuclear power - a fear "driven home by Musk's conversations with senior Russian officials."
While that did not happen, Ukrainian officials still had to beg Musk to turn the satellites back on - cementing his position as a stakeholder in the war, whether wanted or not.
Keeping Ukraine connected
Musk, who owns companies including SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter X, was initially quick to send Starlink equipment to Ukraine when Russia attacked its comms systems, just before war officially broke out in February 2022.
The satellite terminals quickly became integral to Ukraine's efforts, but Musk got cold feet when the defenders began using Starlink for offence.
"How am I in this war?" Musk apparently asked Isaacson. "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 talked to officials including President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan; chair of the joint chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley; and the Russian ambassador to the USA.
At the same time, Ukraine's deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov was asking Musk to turn the system back on via text message.
Musk refused, saying that Ukraine "is now going too far and inviting strategic defeat."
"To hell with it"
By October 2022, Starlink had spent tens of millions of dollars on its efforts, and Musk was growing frustrated. He told the Pentagon his company would no longer provide free equipment and broadband plans.
Then, in classic Musk fashion, he publicly changed his mind, tweeting, "the hell with it … we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free."
Gwynne Shotwell, COO at SpaceX, was "livid" at the decision, according to Isaacson.
"The Pentagon had a $145 million check ready to hand to me, literally," he quotes Shotwell as saying. "Then Elon succumbed to the bullshit on Twitter and to the haters at the Pentagon who leaked the story."
SpaceX and the Pentagon have since agreed a new contract to send equipment to Ukraine.
Computing says:
Some level of bipartisanship and a willingness to negotiate is good. But Musk has a record of parroting Kremlin talking points and Russian propaganda. This was most notable was in his "peace plan" that would officially hand Crimea to Russia and referenced "Kruschev's mistake," shortly after personally talking to Vladimir Putin.
The entire sorry episode shows the danger of relying on private individuals and civilian companies as active players in conflict, especially when they operate without a contract (one has now been signed).