Elon Musk Feared a ‘Mini-Pearl Habor’, Thwarted Ukrainian Attack Over Crimea

 

A Ukrainian official slammed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for ordering engineers to shut off Starlink’s satellite network over the Crimea coast in order to prevent a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships.

“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 said, according to a forthcoming biography by Walter Isaacson.

Musk told Isaacson that he was worried the Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels would provoke the Kremlin into launching a nuclear war. The book, which also reportedly dives into Musk’s feelings about his technology being used in the war, is set to be released on September 12.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy’s top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, has accused Musk of interfering in the war.

“Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake. 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,” Podolyak said.

Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea that Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is home to Russia’s Black Sea warships