Musk declassified the shutdown of Starlink

Musk declassified correspondence with the head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine about Starlink without consent

The head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance Fedorov said that Musk did not warn him that he shared with his biographer their personal correspondence about Starlink, noting that it was "not very nice." Later Fedorov agreed to the publication

American businessman Elon Musk shared with his biographer Walter Isaacson personal correspondence with the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov without the latter's permission. The Ukrainian minister said this in an interview with The Financial Times.

"It's not very pretty," Fedorov said. "I have never talked about our correspondence publicly."

Later, the minister in X (former Twitter) wrote that he consented to the publication of personal correspondence with Musk. "I officially give permission to publish the history of my correspondence with [Elon Musk] in a new book about him. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to the book," the publication says.

Isaacson, in a column for The Washington Post about Musk's biography of his authorship, also revealed details of the businessman's negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities about the operation of the Starlink satellite communication. So, he said that Ukrainian underwater drones with explosives, when they approached the Russian ships, "lost contact and they were thrown ashore, they did not cause harm."

At the same time, in the article, he cited a message from Fedorov, who told Musk about marine drones "capable of destroying any cruiser or submarine." "I have not shared this information with anyone. I just want you, a person who is changing the world with the help of technology, to know this," Isaacson quoted the message of the Ukrainian minister.

Musk replied that the design of the drones is impressive, but refused to include communication in the Crimea. The businessman made this decision out of fear of a retaliatory nuclear strike by Russia after a conversation with the Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, Isaacson noted.

After the publication, Musk himself stated that he did not restrict access to Starlink to the Ukrainian military in the Crimea region, since communication was deactivated in the region.

SpaceX began providing Ukraine with access to satellite communications after the start of the military operation. Fedorov said that the country has 30 thousand terminals.

The New York Times reported on more than 42 thousand terminals in Ukraine by July of this year. She also wrote that Musk last year refused to provide the APU with Internet access from Starlink near Crimea to send a drone with explosives that was supposed to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea.