The head of SpaceX Elon Musk reacted to the scandal with his refusal to support the Ukrainian military operation against the Russian Black Sea Fleet in occupied Crimea in 2022. The businessman stated that he did not turn off the Starlink satellite communication for drones, but refused to turn it on there at the request of Ukraine.
"The obvious intention was to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be a clear complicit in a major war and escalation of the conflict," the billionaire noted.
The day before, CNN, with reference to Elon Muskʼs biographer, wrote that the businessman in 2022 secretly ordered his engineers to disable the Starlink satellite communication network near Crimea in order to disrupt Ukraineʼs attack on the Russian fleet. He was afraid of escalation.
Around the same time, the occupiers captured intact copies of Ukrainian aqua drones that washed ashore for an unknown reason.
Previously, Musk has repeatedly written that he is afraid of Russian dictator Vladimir Putinʼs threats to use nuclear weapons if the Armed Forces go to liberate the peninsula captured by the Russians.
- On June 1, 2023, the Pentagon approved an agreement with SpaceX to purchase Starlink for Ukraine, which Musk will not be able to disable at will.
- In February, SpaceX limited Ukraineʼs use of Starlink satellite internet to control drones in the war zone. SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynn Shotwell said at the time that Starlink, which provided the Ukrainian military with broadband to defend against the Russians, "was never intended to be used as a weapon."