Elon Musk denies sabotaging Ukraine’s attack on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. The reason, the tycoon says, is simple: Musk never promised Kiev satellite coverage of Crimea through Starlink. #1 by Space
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“The Terms of Service clearly prohibit the use of Starlink for offensive military engagements as we are a civilian system. They were asking for something that was specifically forbidden,” Musk said in a post.
The clarification comes in response to a message from Walter Isaacson, the author of the biographical book about Musk, who revealed how the billionaire denied Ukrainians cover for the drone strike in Crimea. “For clarification,” Isaacson wrote, “the Ukrainians believed the camouflage worked as far as Crimea, but it didn’t. They asked Musk to enable this so they could conduct an underwater drone strike on the Russian fleet. Musk didn’t allow this, probably because he thought correctly that it would start a bigger war.
Musk came to the aid of the Ukrainians immediately after the Russian invasion, offering coverage of his Starlink satellite system for communications. But then relations gradually deteriorated, both because of costs eventually borne by the Pentagon and a series of spontaneous departures by Musk in favor of peace negotiations with Moscow. Isaacson’s revelations created new tensions.