CANNES, FRANCE - JUNE 19: Elon Musk attends 'Exploring the New Frontiers of Innovation: Mark Read in Conversation with Elon Musk' session during the Cannes Lions International Festival Of Creativity 2024 - Day Three on June 19, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)
Three people familiar with the command told Reuters that it was Musk’s decision to cut the comms and at least a hundred Starlink terminals were deactivated.
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its fourth year, a report has claimed that tech mogul Elon Musk ordered a brief shutdown of Starlink during a key Ukrainian offensive.
In a report published by news agency Reuters, Elon Musk reportedly told senior engineers in SpaceX’s California offices to cut coverage in areas, including Kherson, which was a key region Ukraine was trying to reclaim in 2022.
Three people familiar with the command told Reuters that it was Musk’s decision to cut the comms and at least a hundred Starlink terminals were deactivated.
The report further added that Musk’s alleged order resulted in a communications blackout for Ukrainian troops.
Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets, officials from the Ukrainian military told Reuters, adding that due to this, the operation to reclaim Kherson failed.
Sources further told Reuters that one of the major reason behind this comms outage was Musk’s fear of a possible nuclear response from Russia.
Reuters’ report on Musk’s alleged order comes a day after Starlink witnessed a massive global outage, where thousands lost connectivity.
Starlink confirmed the global disruption and Elon Musk took to X to apologise for the outage. “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” wrote Musk.
SpaceX denies Ukraine outage report
While an official statement has not been released, SpaceX has denied claims that Elon Musk ordered a comms shutdown during the Ukraine war.
In an email to Reuters regarding the news agency’s queries, a SpaceX spokesperson called the findings of the report “inaccurate.”
The spokesperson further referred to an earlier X post by the Musk-led company: “Starlink is fully committed to providing service to Ukraine.”
When the initial reports of this alleged deliberate outage surfaced, Musk also took to X in March and stated that Starlink “would never do such a thing.”
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