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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by little_cow@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Elon Musk says he refused to give Kyiv access to his Starlink communications network over Crimea to avoid complicity in a "major act of war".

Kyiv had sent an emergency request to activate Starlink to Sevastopol, home to a major Russian navy port, he said.

His comments came after a book alleged he had switched off Starlink to thwart a drone attack on Russian ships.

A senior Ukrainian official says this enabled Russian attacks and accused him of "committing evil".

Russian naval vessels had since taken part in deadly attacks on civilians, he said.

"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," he said.

"Why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realize that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?" he added.

The row follows the release of a biography of the billionaire by Walter Isaacson which alleges that Mr Musk switched off Ukraine's access to Starlink because he feared that an ambush of Russia's naval fleet in Crimea could provoke a nuclear response from the Kremlin.

Ukraine targeted Russian ships in Sevastopol with submarine drones carrying explosives but they lost connection to Starlink and "washed ashore harmlessly", Mr Isaacson wrote.

Starlink terminals connect to SpaceX satellites in orbit and have been crucial for maintaining internet connectivity and communication in Ukraine as the conflict has disrupted the country infrastructure.

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[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

He sold the deal to Ukraine via the pentagon. Ukraine is a US ally, so the pentagon coordinated the sale.

If anything, this sounds like he lied to both the pentagon and Ukraine about the terms of the deal. Or he reneged on the deal by refusing to give Ukraine access. His argument thus far has basically been “I didn’t want to be implicated” but he sold them to Ukraine specifically for that purpose via the pentagon. So that argument doesn’t really hold water, because he knew what he was selling right from the start.

My guess is that he’s a Russian asset. Russia has some sort of leverage on Elon, and realized they couldn’t get their ships out to sea before the drone strike happened. So they told Elon to pull the plug to protect their ships.

[-] HerrBeter@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

That’s my bet as well. We know Elon was on Epstein’s island because of the documents that got released. That much is known fact, and pretty indisputable. The issue is what he potentially did (and potentially got filmed doing) on said island. If that footage found its way into Russian hands, I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Elon is being blackmailed by Putin.

this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
735 points (95.2% liked)

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