Elon Musk reportedly ordered his engineers to shut down the Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to thwart an attack by Ukraine on the Russian fleet. This is supported by a new biography on the billionaire written by Walter Isaacson and entitled “Elon Musk”. The decision of Tesla’s patron, who then forced Kiev officials to “beg” him to turn the satellites back on, was dictated by the strong fear that Russia could respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons, reads the book by which CNN obtained some excerpts. (WAR IN UKRAINE: LIVEBLOG)
Indiscretions in the book
While drones loaded with explosives were about to approach Russian ships last year, communication suddenly disappeared. The Ukrainians had asked Musk to reactivate the satellite immediately, but the billionaire was afraid that the attack would provoke a response from Vladimir Putin, who decided to use nuclear power. The billionaire said he loaned Starlink when the Russians shut down Ukraine’s telephone network before the invasion in February 2022, but he had doubts when he saw that the Ukrainians had begun using the satellite to lead the offensive about the Russians. After Russia shut down Ukraine’s communications systems shortly before its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Musk agreed to supply Ukraine with millions of dollars worth of SpaceX-manufactured Starlink satellite terminals, which have become crucial to Ukrainian military operations. Even though cell phones and internet networks had been destroyed, Starlink terminals allowed Ukraine to fight back and stay connected. But once Ukraine started using Starlink terminals for offensive attacks against Russia, Musk started reconsidering that decision.
The millionaire’s doubts
“How am I in this war?” Musk asks Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix, relax, get online for school and do good peaceful things, without attacking drones.” Musk was soon on the phone with President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley and the Russian ambassador to the United States to address anxieties from Washington, D.C., to Moscow, Isaacson writes Meanwhile, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, was pleading with Musk to restore connectivity for underwater drones by telling Musk about their capabilities in a text message, according to Isaacson.“I just want you, the person who is changing the world through technology, to know,” Fedorov told Musk.
deepening
X, Elon Musk admits: “It could fail”
2023-09-08 05:36:49
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