Elon Musk is said to have interfered twice against Ukraine in support of Russia due to fear of the use of nuclear weapons. But who do you think he is? |Credit: Brian Jason/Shutterstock
On September 30, 2022, Ukrainian forces were poised to win a massive military victory over Russia, but in fear of Russian nuclear retaliation, Elon Musk decided to decide the outcome of the conflict.
That day, Musk is said to have ordered Starlink staff to close some Ukraine’s internet services as the military administered a critical counterattack just months after the Russian invasion began.
Musk’s order led to a blackout in military communications in Ukraine, and the attack failed in September 2022 as the military tried to get Kherson back. According to Reuters spoke to three people who are well-versed in command.
“Musk was afraid of Russia’s nuclear retaliation.”
The order seriously undermines Kiev’s confidence in Starlink, a satellite internet service mask provided early in the war to help Ukrainian military maintain connections on the battlefield.
“Three people familiar with the order said they believe Ukraine’s progress was arising from concerns Musk later expressed that it could trigger nuclear retaliation from Russia,” Reuters argued.
Several US officials shared Musk’s concerns that Russia continues to escalate and rely on nuclear weapons, a former White House official told Reuters.
“The mask order was an early glimpse into the current power of massive geopolitics and global security for Starlink, a rapidly growing satellite internet service that barely existed at the beginning of the decade and now provides connectivity even in remote areas of the world,” Reuters said.
Musk’s excessive influence and power
Even before his brief role as a financial aid and advisor to President Donald Trump, Starlink’s success — and the unparalleled connectivity it offers across the globe, Musk had an impact on political leaders, government, the military and the military around the world, the British press added.
Several US regulators and lawmakers are extremely concerned about the influence of Musk in Washington and beyond due to Starlink’s control in satellite communications and the influence of space at space launch. Musk now has certain powers, as Reuters noted, that were previously exclusive to the sovereign government.
“Elon Musk’s current global domination exemplifies the risk of concentration in unregulated areas,” said Martha Lane Fox, a British Parliamentary Sen., during a discussion earlier this year. Congress is a businessman and former board member of Twitter, a social media site that Musk acquired and rebranded as X in 2022.
“That control,” Lane Fox said of Starlink:
He also interfered with Crimea.
In a 2023 Musk biographer, author Walter Isaacson wrote that one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people ordered Starlink to override coverage in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine after the 2014 invasion.
Isaacson said Musk believes Ukraine’s planned attack on Russian ships at Crimea’s Sebastopol port could encourage nuclear retaliation.
