According to a new book, Elon Musk demanded SpaceX engineers disengage a portion of the Starlink satellite network, used to provide internet access to isolated places, to areas around Crimea to intentionally thwart a Ukrainian surprise attack on the Russian navy in 2022.

Per a CNN report, Musk learned of a Ukrainian plan to use explosives-laden submarine drones for a significant attack on the Russian fleet positioned along the Crimean coast in 2022, and he feared the attack would be “another Pearl Harbor” prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to utilize nuclear weapons in retaliation.  Musk balked at the use of his company’s technology to facilitate the attack saying later, “How am I in this war?  Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

Musk reportedly discussed the continued deployment and use of the Starlink system in Ukraine with US–and Russian–officials around the time of the planned attack, with Russian officials allegedly pointing out Putin’s displeasure with Musk’s contributions to Ukrainian society.  Musk disputes reports he speaks to Putin directly, billionaire oligarch to billionaire oligarch, about Musk’s position on the Ukraine invasion, which typically has a pro-Kremlin slant.  Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov had been communicating via text with Musk, stressing the importance of the Starlink system to Ukraine’s defense. 

At one point, Musk proposed pulling the Starlink system from Ukraine given the financial hardship it was calling on the billionaire’s pocketbook, but then he tweeted impetuously, “the hell with it … we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,” a statement that angered executives at his company because the Pentagon had vowed to pay SpaceX more than $145 million to keep the service going.  Eventually, SpaceX reached a deal with the US and other Western governments to fund on an ongoing basis the Starlink system in Ukraine.