On Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who never misses an opportunity to call for investigations into Elon Musk, demanded a full investigation into the idea that Musk personally stopped Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite network during a possible attack on Russian warships near Crimea.
Walter Isaacson, renowned biographer and former head of CNN, has had to retract a major claim in his much-anticipated biography of Elon Musk just as the book was due to be released. The claim, which suggested Musk deliberately disabled Starlink coverage to prevent a Ukrainian drone assault on a Russian fleet in Crimea, was revealed to be incorrect after Musk and Isaacson issued clarifying statements.
The initial account, which painted Musk making a game-changing decision at a crucial moment, said the SpaceX founder had told his engineers to “turn off coverage 100 kilometers off the coast of Crimea.” This was out of concern that a surprise attack would turn into a nuclear confrontation reminiscent of a “mini-Pearl Harbor”. The impact was significant, causing the Ukrainian drone submarines to lose connectivity and ultimately become ineffective in their planned assault on the Russian fleet in Sevastopol.
Those claims, which first came to light in an early excerpt published by CNN, set off a whirlwind of speculation and debate about Musk’s influence and possible interference in global affairs.