Musk Says Kiev Demanded SpaceX Violate US Sanctions to Aid Crimea Attack

During an appearance on the Silicon Valley podcast All-In earlier this week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave greater context to a 2022 episode revealed in his recently-released biography.

Walter Isaacson’s book "Elon Musk," which was released on Monday, describes an undated incident in which the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an attack on the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea. US news agency CNN reported the incident as one in which Musk “turned off” Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite internet constellation operated by his company, SpaceX, in order to sabotage the attack.

However, as Musk explained on the podcast, that wasn’t actually how it happened at all.

"At the time this happened, the region around Crimea was actually turned off," he said, referring to the Starlink connection. "Now, the reason it was turned off was originally because the United States has sanctions against Russia - and that includes Crimea - and we are actually not allowed to turn on connectivity to a sanctioned country without explicit government approval, which we did not have from the US government."

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"So basically, Ukraine - they didn't give us any advance warning or heads-up or anything, we just got the urgent calls from the Ukrainian government saying that we needed to 'turn on Crimea' - it was like in the middle of the night, basically. We were like: 'what are you talking about?' And then we figured out this was a kind of Pearl Harbor-type attack on the Russian fleet in Sevastopol. So they were really asking us to really actively take part in a major act of war," Musk said.

"We certainly have huge empathy and support for the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian government is not in charge of US people or companies. That's not how it works."

The podcast hosts asked about an interview with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in which CNN journalist Jake Tapper, asked if there should be "repercussions" because "Musk effectively sabotaged a military operation by Ukraine."

Musk noted that "to his credit, Secretary Blinken was actually quite supportive, despite the absurd accusations and questions," adding that the foreign minister didn't "take the bait at all."

Indeed, Blinken's answers to a series of questions about Musk and Starlink focused on how the satellite internet service "has been really important to the Ukrainians" and "an important part" of their military operations.

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SpaceX, a major US government defense contractor, has offered Kiev free use of the Starlink network since shortly after the conflict began in February 2022. Still, Musk has indicated there are limits to how far it will go to directly aid Kiev's side of the conflict.

"Starlink is the communication backbone of Ukraine, especially at the front lines, where almost all other internet connectivity has been destroyed," Musk said in February on the X social media site, which he also owns. "But we will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3."

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell later told reporters that Starlink "was never intended to be weaponized."

"Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement," Shotwell said. She later added that "there are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that. There are things that we can do, and have done."

Indeed, there have been certain examples of "weaponization," including a naval drone found near Sevastopol with a Starlink antenna lashed to its stern.

Musk: Ukraine Demanded SpaceX Violate US Sanctions to Aid Crimea Drone Attack