Could it represent a brake on the Ukrainian counter-offensive? Since the start of the war in February 2022, billionaire Elon Musk has provided significant support to Ukraine through his Starlink system. Especially since this satellite Internet access network has become vital for kyiv while Russia destroyed several communications infrastructures from the start of the war.
However, CNN reports this Thursday, September 7, that the billionaire blocked a Ukrainian attack during the year 2022. Revelations contained in the latest (authorized) biography on Elon Musk signed by Walter Isaacson and which will appear on September 12.
According to our colleagues at CNN, who were able to consult the book, Elon Musk disrupted a Ukrainian attack on the Russian navy near Crimea. In a very simple way: he asked his engineers to disable his communications network over the annexed peninsula. In the book, Walter Isaacson says that it was Elon Musk himself who made this decision.
And this, even as underwater drones headed straight for Russian warships. Seconds from impact, they “lost connection and grounded”. To get the network reactivated, Ukrainians had to “beg” the billionaire, reports CNN.
Why did the fanciful billionaire make this decision? The biographer explains that Elon Musk feared, at that time, a “mini Pearl Harbor”. A direct reference to the Japanese attack on an American military base in December 1941 that led to the United States’ participation in World War II.
The owner of Tesla, SpaceX and even X (formerly Twitter) based his fears in particular on conversations he had had with Russian leaders. Walter Isaacson relates that the businessman feared a nuclear response from Russia.
“Starlink was not supposed to be involved in wars. It was so people could watch Netflix, relax, connect to school and do peaceful things,” Elon Musk justifies in the biography. Last October, he even asked the US Department of Defense to pay him to continue to keep Starlink active. Without success.
