Last Updated on 09/08/2023 by てんしょく飯
A new biography of U.S. businessman Elon Musk, scheduled for release on September 12, reveals that he secretly ordered his engineers to cut the network near Crimea in southern Ukraine of his company’s satellite communications company, Starlink, in order to stop a surprise attack by Ukrainian troops on a Russian military fleet last year. The biographer, Walter I. Eichhorn, wrote a biography of the company’s founder and CEO, Walter I. Eichhorn.
Elon Musk became a shadowy figure that U.S. officials could not ignore.
Walter Isaacson, who wrote the biography, wrote that when a Ukrainian unmanned submersible carrying explosives approached the Russian fleet, “the unmanned submarine lost its communications connection and was launched onto the shore without harm.”
According to Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk’s decision to cut communications was based on conversations with Russian officials, who had intense fears that Russia would respond to Ukraine’s attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons. The Ukrainian officials asked Elon Musk to restore communications.
The fear of becoming what Elon Musk calls a “little Pearl Harbor” did not become a reality in Crimea. But the episode illustrates the unique position that Elon Musk is in as the war unfolds in Ukraine. Regardless of his own intentions, Elon Musk has become a shadowy figure that U.S. officials cannot ignore.
Walter Isaacson has also written biographies of the late, highly regarded Apple founder Steve Jobs and physicist Albert Einstein.
His new book offers new insights into Elon Musk. Fear of escalating the war suggests that Elon Musk rejected Ukraine’s request for the Starlink system, which could be used to attack Russia.
Russia disrupted Ukraine’s telecommunication systems just prior to its full invasion of Ukraine last February. Subsequently, Elon Musk agreed to provide Ukraine with Starlink satellite communication terminals manufactured by his own space business company, SpaceX. Starlink became crucial to Ukraine’s military operations. Even when cellular and Internet networks were destroyed, the Starlink terminals allowed Ukrainian forces to fight and communicate with each other.
But as Ukraine began using Starlink terminals to attack Russia, it appears that Elon Musk began to reconsider his decision to provide them.
Elon Musk asked Walter Isaacson, “How am I involved in this war?” and he replied, “Starlink was not supposed to be involved in the war. It’s meant to be used for peaceful purposes, like watching Netflix or connecting to the Internet for study. It is not for drone strikes,” he stated.
According to his biography, Elon Musk immediately spoke by phone with U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Millie, and the Russian ambassador to the United States to try to address concerns that spread from the United States to Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov informed Elon Musk via text message of the usefulness of unmanned submersibles and asked him to restore communications connectivity. He also stated, “I just want you to know that you are changing the world with technology.”
Neither Elon Musk nor SpaceX responded to CNN’s request for comment.
In a reply to Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov, Elon Musk said that he was impressed with the design of the unmanned submersible, but that he had no intention of returning satellite communications in Crimea because Ukraine was “going too far and is inviting a strategic defeat” in the country.
As Ukrainian and U.S. officials stepped into a situation they had never experienced before, they continued to rely on the generosity of a wealthy man who was unpredictable in securing communications on the battlefield. And this led to a confrontation last fall over who would pay for Starlink’s terminals.
According to Elon Musk, SpaceX was covering tens of millions of dollars in satellite equipment costs for Ukraine, and CNN reported last October that SpaceX had notified the Pentagon that it would not continue to pay these costs.
However, Elon Musk changed course after the CNN report and indicated in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he would “continue to fund the Ukrainian government.
According to Walter Isaacson, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell was angered by this change in policy by Musk.
Gwynne Shotwell said that “the Pentagon was prepared to hand me a check for $145 million,” and that “that’s what Elon gave in to the crap on X (formerly Twitter) and his adversaries within the Pentagon who leaked this story.”
According to the biography, SpaceX was eventually able to sign contracts with U.S. and European governments earlier this year for payment for 100,000 new satellite dishes.
The importance that Starlink plays in the war remains undiminished.
Last week, the U.S. and the countries that make up the Five Eyes, which shares classified information with the U.S., accused Russian hackers of targeting the battlefield communications of Ukrainian military commanders. According to Ukraine, malicious Russian code was designed to interfere with data sent to Starlink satellites.
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