Elon Musk, notably the owner of SpaceX, admits to having rejected a request from Ukraine to activate internet access via its Starlink satellite in the Black Sea, near Crimea, annexed by Moscow, thus allowing a drone attack on the Russian fleet in the September 2022 to prevent.

The news was broken by CNN, which had access to an excerpt from an upcoming biography of Elon Musk written by author Walter Isaacson. The excerpt in question was then published by the Washington Post.

The Starlink satellite has provided a lifeline to Ukrainians, both civilians and military, since the Russian invasion began in February 2022 in areas where digital infrastructure was destroyed. Its terminals are used in hospitals by companies and humanitarian organizations across the country.

We have received an urgent request from government authorities to activate Starlink to Sevastopol. The apparent intention was to sink most of the anchored Russian fleetpublished on Thursday on X (Twitter) Elon Musk after the excerpt of his biography was published Washington Post.

The billionaire then had a conversation with a Russian official that led him to believe that if this attack had occurred, it could have led to a nuclear conflict, as Walter Isaacson recounts in his book.

Had I accepted their request, SpaceX would clearly have been involved in a major act of war and an escalation of the conflict.

However, Elon Musk disputes certain points in the biographer’s account of the case, which he claims is the businessman He secretly ordered his engineers to deactivate coverage within a 100-kilometer radius of the Crimean coast.

He states that this was not the case with Starlink not activated in the regions in question, and that SpaceX therefore had none nothing disabled. Instead, he rejected Kiev’s request for activation.

Starlink-dependent Ukraine accuses Musk of facilitating Russian aggression

By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the military fleet [russe]Elon Musk allowed this fleet to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities, which killed civilians and childrenresponded Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency.

It is the result of a cocktail of ignorance and big egos.

Musk’s near-total control over connectivity in the war zone has raised concerns about his influence.

In October 2022, for example, he claimed that he could not finance it unlimited the use of satellites by Ukraine.

Last February, Kiev was furious after a SpaceX executive said Starlink had taken steps to restrict the Ukrainian military’s use of the technology to control drones.

Concerned about its dependence on Starlink, Ukraine has looked to other satellite internet providers, but no other service offers the same reach, officials say.

Starlink is the lifeblood of our entire communications infrastructureMikhailo Fyodorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, recently admitted New York Times.

The United States has not explained whether Musk’s actions were acceptable to a U.S. government contractor or what actions might be taken in response.

A Pentagon spokesman said only that the Defense Department did so I am aware of the topic and interested in itrefused to communicate anything Operational details on Starlink for security reasons.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the American tycoon’s decision feared a nuclear reaction. If this story is TRUE, Musk may be the last sane person in North Americahe added.

With information from the New York Times and Agence France-Presse