Musk denies treason allegations over restricting Ukraine’s access to Starlink
Elon Musk (Photo:Michel Euler/Pool via REUTERS)
SpaceX founder Elon
Musk does not agree that he betrayed U.S. national interests by denying the
Ukrainian military access to Starlink satellite internet over Russia-occupied
Crimea, Musk said in a Twitter post on Sept. 11.
“I am a citizen of the United States and have only that passport; no matter what happens, I will fight for and die in America,” he said.
“The United States Congress has not declared war on Russia. If anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such.”
Citing an excerpt from a new biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson, CNN reported on Sept. 7 that in 2022 the businessman supposedly ordered his engineers to disable Starlink near the coast of occupied Crimea, disrupting a Ukrainian naval drone attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
The book mentions that Ukrainian drones lost connection when approaching the bay, resulting in them washing ashore. According to Isaacson, Musk’s decision "was driven by a sharp fear that Russia would respond to Ukraine's attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons." Musk's concerns of a “mini Pearl-Harbor,” occurred after talks with high-ranking Russian officials.
In turn, Musk claims he never “disabled” Starlink access in the region, saying instead he denied Kyiv’s request to enable it in the first place. It’s unclear why Ukraine would go through with the attack if the request was denied, as the owner of Twitter says it was.
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