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Musk Clarifies He Declined Starlink Activation Request to Enable 2022 Ukraine Strike Near Crimea

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX and its Starlink satellite internet service, clarified in a statement that he declined to activate the network over Crimea in order to enable a Ukrainian strike on the Russian naval fleet.
Sputnik
"The Starlink regions in question were not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything," Musk said on Thursday, via social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
Musk noted that an "emergency request" from government authorities to activate Starlink satellites all the way to Sevastopol had been received, but that it was sidelined.

"If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation," Musk wrote.

The billionaire's comments were in response to excerpts cited in US media from the looming Musk biography authored by writer Walter Isaacson. The book reportedly outlines how Musk feared a "mini-Pearl Harbor" breaking out after conversing with senior Russian and American officials, including the likes of national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
"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 is said to have told Isaacson.
World
Musk Confirms Kiev Won’t Be Allowed to ‘Weaponize’ Starlink Satellites ‘That May Lead to WW3’
The latest comes months after Musk earlier commented in February that the Ukrainian military would not be allowed to use the Starlink services for combat purposes, and that they were only intended for commercial terminals.
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