Ukrainian Official Blasts ‘Big Ego’ Elon Musk For Cutting Internet Access: ‘Children Are Being Killed’

AP Photo/Michel Euler, File

Ukraine’s leadership is lashing out at reports that Elon Musk cut Starlink satellite access over Crimea to stop the country from attacking Russia’s navy in 2022, saying Musk’s “big ego” cost the lives of children and civilians.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a top aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted Thursday:

Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake. By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via #Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego. However, the question still remains: 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?

In a new biography on Musk set to be released next week, author Walter Isaacson wrote that the billionaire entrepreneur had a change of heart after providing Starlink terminals to Ukraine, for fear of starting a nuclear war.

“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,” Musk reportedly said.

According to CNBC, “Starlink is SpaceX’s global network of more than 4,000 satellites that provide service to over 50 countries. In Ukraine, Starlink has worked as the connective tissue for crucial battlefield communications.”

Isaacson wrote that Musk discussed his decision with President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, CNBC reported, continuing:

Musk replied that he thought Ukraine was “going too far and inviting strategic defeat,” according to Isaacson’s book.

“I think if the Ukrainian attacks had succeeded in sinking the Russian fleet, it would have been like a mini Pearl Harbor and led to a major escalation,” Musk said, according to Isaacson. “We did not want to be a part of that.”

Read the CNBC article here.