Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, searches as he goes to the Viva Technology conference committed to development and start-ups at the Porte de Versailles exhibit centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Author Walter Isaacson required to social networks to attempt to “clarify” an excerpt from his upcoming book, “Elon Musk.” The excerpt got speedy reaction after it explained how Musk prevented a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships.
Isaacson’s book declares that Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought engineers to turn off Starlink’s satellite network over Crimea in 2015 in order to interfere with a Ukrainian military effort. Musk’s Starlink terminals showed up in the early days of Russia’s unprovoked intrusion of Ukraine as Western federal governments worked to provide Kyiv with weapons and air defense systems.
Musk ultimately soured on the plan and stated “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars,” according to the book. The tech billionaire informed Isaacson he was fretted the Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels would provoke the Kremlin into releasing a nuclear war.
But in a post on X, previously called Twitter, late Friday, Isaacson shared brand-new information.
“To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not,” Isaacson composed. “They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.”
Crimea is a peninsula on the Black Sea that Russia unlawfully annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and it is house to Russia’s Black Sea warships. In the days following Russia’s full-blown intrusion in February 2022, the Black Sea fleet fired rockets on once-industrious Ukrainian seaside cities while enforcing a disastrous marine blockade.
Isaacson went even more in a second post on Saturday, stating that stated he “mistakenly” idea Musk decided to turn off Starlink’s satellite network on the night of the attack.
“Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night,” Isaacson stated. “He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy.”
Isaacson’s X posts followed a leading assistant to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Musk over the excerpt.
“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,” Mykhailo Podolyak composed Thursday on social networks after CNN reported on a few of the information from Isaacson’s book.
“As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego,” he included.
Isaacson’s total book is slated for release on Tuesday.
Read the complete excerpt about Starlink and Ukraine in the Washington Post.
— CNBC’s Amanda Macias added to this report.
