American business tycoon Elon Musk thwarted Ukraine's attempted sabotage of Russia's naval fleet based close to the Crimean coast in 2022, excerpts from his latest biography have shown.
According to the book titled "Elon Musk" written by author Walter Isaacson, the incident took place last fall when Ukrainian forces planned a surprise drone attack on the Eurasian nation's warships but were denied the chance to do so as the Tesla and SpaceX founder ordered his company's engineers to switch off internet services in the country.
"As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly," Isaacson mentions in the book.
Isaacson claims that Musk's decision to not support Kiev in the abovementioned plans was based on the assumption that Volodymyr Zelensky's forces were "going too far and inviting strategic defeat."
Also, Musk believed, as per Isaacson, that the "attack could turn out to be the Pearl Harbour moment for Russia in the conflict".
Furthermore, Musk "feared that Moscow could retaliate with a nuclear strike on Ukraine" if he allowed the Kiev regime to move forward with the operation.
After the Russia's forces destroyed Ukraine's communications network, Musk stepped in to provide internet connectivity through his Starlink satellite terminals, which subsequently became a lifeline for the country's combat operations against the Russians.
Even though mobile phones and the fiber optical internet had stopped working, Musk's Starlink made it possible for Ukraine's defense forces to continue their fight against the Russian Army.
But Musk began to question his own decision once his company's satellites began playing an active role in offensive operations against President Vladimir Putin's forces.
"How am I in this war?" Musk told Isaacson. "Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes."