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Last year, Musk prevented an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Russian Black Sea Fleet by deactivating the Starlink network - CNN
In 2022, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, secretly instructed his engineers to deactivate the Starlink network off the coast of Crimea, which was occupied by Russia, in order to stop the Ukrainian Defense Forces from attacking the Russian Navy.
CNN reported this on Thursday, September 7, citing a fragment of a new biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson.
The book states that Ukrainian underwater drones loaded with explosives lost communication when they approached the aggressor state's fleet and eventually washed ashore. As Isaacson writes, Musk's decision was caused by a deep fear that Russia could respond to the Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons. Musk expressed fears of a "mini-Pearl Harbor" after conversations with high-ranking representatives of the aggressor country.
"Starlink was not created to fight wars. It was designed to allow people to watch Netflix, relax, connect to the Internet at school, and do peaceful things, not to carry out drone strikes," the billionaire told the biographer.
After that, Musk called US President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, as well as Russian officials in the US, as indicated in his biography.
While, according to Isaacson, Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov persistently persuaded Musk to restore communication for the drones, telling the billionaire about their capabilities.
Musk replied that he was impressed with the design of the drones, but would not include Starlink near Crimea because Ukraine "goes too far and asks for a strategic defeat," as the book states.
On October 3, 2022, Musk invited users on Twitter to vote for his "option" for ending the full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which included "referendums" in the temporarily occupied regions, the "transfer" of Crimea to Russia, guarantees of water supply, and Ukraine's "neutral" status. After a wave of criticism, the billionaire said that he "continues to strongly support Ukraine" but fears escalation.
CNN, citing sources, reported that Musk has been promoting his "peace plan" for Ukraine at conferences and in conversations with think tanks, and "hints at contacts with the Kremlin."
Soon after, Vice, citing American political scientist and founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, reported that Musk had spoken to Putin before his scandalous tweets about "peace" between Ukraine and Russia.
Musk denied this and claimed that he had last spoken to Putin about a year and a half ago, when they discussed space-related issues. In August 2023, The New Yorker, citing former senior Pentagon official Colin Kahl, reported that Elon Musk had indeed called the Russian dictator in 2022.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-m...
Photo: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
