Elon Musk responds to claims of Starlink being shut off to stop Ukraine attacking Russia

CNN released a report that claimed SpaceX was instructed by company CEO Elon Musk to turn off Starlink internet access over Crimea to prevent a major Ukrainian offensive attack against Russia's naval fleet.

CNN's sources were Walter Isaacson's new biography titled "Elon Musk" where it claimed that Elon Musk told SpaceX to deactivate internet access over the region to stop Ukraine from destroying Russia's fleets with drones. The publication states that since internet access was severed the drones that were en route to their targets "lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly". Notably, this Ukrainian offensive happened last year, and Isaacson's book will be released on September 12, 2023.

Now, Elon Musk has responded to the recent claims, writing on X that the Starlink regions in question were not activated, and SpaceX didn't "deactivate anything". Musk followed up with further explanation, writing that the Ukrainian government issued an emergency request to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol, with the intent being to "sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor".

The SpaceX CEO continued and said, "If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."

Musk finished up his overall response to these claims by saying that both sides (Ukraine and Russia) should agree to a truce, as everyday that passes more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose a small piece of land. "This is not worth their lives".

It seems that Musk's reasoning behind denying the emergency request by the Ukrainian government was to not participate in such an offensive attack that would only add more fuel to the fire and ultimate exacerbate the issue between Russia and Ukraine.