A top adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky said the tech billionaire’s actions were ‘the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego’

By Joe Barnes 8 September 2023

Elon Musk “committed evil” by refusing to allow Ukrainian forces access to his Starlink satellite network for a planned naval drone strike in the Black Sea, a top adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

‌“Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on X, the platform owned by the tech billionaire and formerly known as Twitter.

‌“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military fleet via Starlink interference, Elon Musk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities,” he said.

‌Denouncing the decision as “the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego”, Mr Podolyak added: “Why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realize that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?”

‌His rant came after Mr Musk admitted he had refused a request from the Ukrainian government to turn on Starlink satellite communications near the coast of occupied Crimea last year because he feared the attack could trigger a nuclear response from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The “constellation” of satellites, operated by his SpaceX firm, has been used by Ukrainian forces during the war to coordinate drone and artillery strikes, stream live video from battlefields and gather intelligence.

Mr Musk was responding to claims made in Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the South African-born billionaire, entitled Elon Musk.

‌His fears of a nuclear escalation grew after conversations with Kremlin officials, Mr Isaacson wrote.

Mr Musk was said to be worried the strike on the Russian navy would be viewed in Moscow as a “mini-Pearl Harbor” moment for the conflict, a reference to the Japanese attack on the US naval base that encouraged Washington to join the Second World War.

The tech billionaire also denied deactivating Starlink around Crimea, insisting it had never been activated near the peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Satellite terminals donated by Mr Musk have become vital to Ukrainian military communications.

But the 52-year-old entrepreneur, who has sole control over the Starlink system, has reportedly restricted access to it on multiple occasions during the war.

Last year he was heavily criticised for publishing a “peace plan” for Ukraine, which suggested there should be fresh sovereignty referendums, under the supervision of the United Nations, in regions occupied by Russia.

Ukraine was also forced to ask the United States to mediate with Mr Musk, who has previously been accused of having “pro-Kremlin” views, after its armed forces suffered Starlink blackouts.

Mr Musk’s interventions in the war have prompted questions over his influence in the conflict as a private citizen.

Emil Kastehlmi, an open-source intelligence analyst with the volunteer Black Bird Group, said: “Damaging and destroying some ships in a war zone is not enough for a nuclear war.

‌“It seems that especially outside Europe, people seem to have a flawed understanding of what the threshold for a nuclear war actually is. This course of action only let Russians operate more freely.”

The controversy over the Crimea incident came amid accusations from Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, that Mr Musk had given his biographer confidential texts containing exchanges relating to the restriction of Starlink services.

Mr Fedorov told the Financial Times on Friday that he was unaware that Mr Isaacson had obtained and published the messages in his forthcoming biography of Mr Musk.

One exchange included in the book reveals Mr Federov pleaded with the entrepreneur to restore Starlink services to Kyiv’s troops.

“I understand why he published these, because I’m telling him how great he is and he should save humanity,” Mr Federov told the newspaper.