Musk says he refused Kyiv request for Starlink use in attack on Russia (updated)

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port PAO

08/09/2023 21:48

(Adds Ukrainian comment, paragraph 13)
       WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said he refused
a Ukrainian request to activate his Starlink satellite network
in Crimea's port city of Sevastopol last year to aid an attack
on Russia's fleet there, saying he feared complicity in a
"major" act of war.
    The billionaire businessman made the comment on his social
media platform X after CNN cited a excerpt from a new biography
of Musk that says he ordered the Starlink network turned off
near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt the Ukrainian sneak
attack.
    In the post on X - formerly known as Twitter - late on
Thursday, Musk said he had no choice but to reject an emergency
request from Ukraine "to activate Starlink all the way to
Sevastopol." He did not give the date of the request and the
excerpt did not specify it.
    "The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet
at anchor," Musk wrote. "If I had agreed to their request, then
SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and
conflict escalation."
    Russia, which seized the strategic Crimea peninsula in 2014,
bases its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and has used the fleet
in a de factor blockade of Ukrainian ports since its full-scale
invasion in 2022.
    The Russian fleet fires cruise missiles at Ukrainian
civilian targets, and Kyiv has launched attacks on Russian ships
using maritime drones.
    According to CNN, Walter Isaacson's new biography "Elon
Musk," to be released by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, says that
when Ukrainian explosive-laden submarine drones last year
approached the Russian fleet, they "lost connectivity and washed
ashore harmlessly." 
    It said Musk's decision, which left Ukrainian officials
begging him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by an
acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack with
nuclear weapons. 
    CNN said that according to the biography, this was based on
Musk's conversations with senior Russian officials and his fears
of a "mini-Pearl Harbor."
    In August, a Russian warship was seriously damaged in a
Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia's Black Sea navy base at
Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected
its power so far from the country's shores.
    SpaceX, through private donations and under a separate
contract with a U.S. foreign aid agency, has been providing
Ukrainians and the country's military with Starlink internet
service, a fast-growing network of more than 4,000 satellites in
low Earth orbit, since the beginning of the war in 2022.
    The Pentagon said in June that SpaceX's Starlink had a
Department of Defense contract to buy satellite services for
Ukraine.
    Commenting on the reports on Ukrainian national television,
Vadym Skybytskyi, an officer in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's
Intelligence Directorate GUR, did not directly address whether
Musk had declined Ukraine's request. But he said it was
necessary to investigate and to "appoint a specific group to
examine what happened." 
        A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Musk's
decision but said, "The Department continues to work closely
with commercial industry to ensure we have the right
capabilities the Ukrainians need to defend themselves."

 (Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart
and Ron Popeski; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
 ((david.brunnstrom@thomsonreuters.com; +1-202 354 5835;
Twitter: @davidbrunnstrom;))