Elon Musk personally ordered SpaceX’s Starlink to stop its satellite broadband service in Ukraine, scuttling a major offensive operation by the nation against Russia, according to a biography about the billionaire tycoon.

An excerpt from the forthcoming tome by Walter Isaacson, titled Elon Musk and shared with CNN, revealed that in 2022 Ukraine planned an attack against Russian naval ships near Crimea. But as Ukraine’s explosive-laden submarine drones approached Russia's warships, they "lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly," the book claimed.

SpaceX CEO Musk was the reason for the lost signal: he cut off the Starlink connectivity the drones were relying upon because he feared a "mini-Pearl Harbor" would take place, according to Isaacson in his book.

Earlier conversations with Russian officials had convinced Musk that the Kremlin would retaliate against such a Ukrainian attack with nuclear weapons, the biographer claimed.

The incident also allegedly led Musk to deny Ukrainian requests for additional Starlink systems that could be used for offensive purposes against Russia.

The book, set to go on sale next week, follows February remarksby SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell that Ukraine had "leveraged [Starlink] in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement."

Shotwell didn't provide specifics about what these unacceptable uses were. But Reuters at the time noted she was referring to Ukraine using the satellite broadband service to remotely control drones - which is in accord with Isaacson's account in his latest book.

The excerpt carried by CNN includes the following:

Meanwhile, Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister of Ukraine, was reportedly texting Musk and begging him to restore connectivity. "I just want you - the person who is changing the world through technology - to know this," Fedorov told Musk, according to Isaacson's account.

We have asked Starlink for further comment.

SpaceX has donated Starlink terminals and satellite comms service to the Ukraine government since Russia’s invasion commenced in February 2022.

Musk, however, has been ambivalent about that support.

He reportedly wasn't happy that his biz was giving away services in Ukraine to the tune of $80 million as of October 2022, and threatened to stop supplying the country with Starlink equipment. We note that the US federal government also purchased some equipment to send to Ukraine.

Then, in typical Musk fashion, he reversed this decision with a tweet: "The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free."

Isaacson also discusses this incident in the upcoming biography and reports that Shotwell was none too happy with Musk's reversal.

"The Pentagon had a $145 million check ready to hand to me, literally," Isaacson quotes Shotwell as saying. "Then Elon succumbed to the bullshit on Twitter and to the haters at the Pentagon who leaked the story."

SpaceX has since secured major contracts with the Pentagon to send Starlink systems to Ukraine.

On Wednesday the US Department of Defense announced an additional $175 million security assistance package to help Ukraine counter Russia's invasion, but it's unclear if any of these funds will make their way to SpaceX's coffers. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2023/09/07/musk_biography_excerpt/