Musk explained the refusal of the APU to turn on Starlink in Crimea

Musk: SpaceX prohibits the use of Starlink in military operations, as requested by the APU

The conditions of SpaceX, the operator of Starlink, prohibit the use of the service for military operations, as requested by the Ukrainian military, American businessman Elon Musk said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

"Our terms of service explicitly prohibit the use of Starlink for offensive military operations, since we are a civilian system, so they [the Ukrainian authorities] again asked for something that was explicitly prohibited," Musk wrote.

The businessman also stressed that there is a significant difference in the refusal to act at the request of Ukraine and the deliberate introduction of changes to Starlink in order to "hinder" Kiev.

In addition, neither he nor anyone else at SpaceX promised to ensure the operation of Starlink in the Crimea, Musk added.

Starlink terminals allow you to provide Internet access using a network of almost 4 thousand satellites launched into Earth orbit. SpaceX began delivering satellites to Ukraine after the start of the Russian military operation.

Last year, Musk refused to provide the armed forces of Ukraine with Internet access from Starlink near Crimea, as they were going to send a drone there that was supposed to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea, The New York Times reported last summer.

Later, the author of a new biography of the businessman, Walter Isaacson, wrote that Ukrainian underwater drones with explosives, when they approached the Russian ships, "lost contact and were washed ashore, they did not cause harm." As Musk explained to Isaacson, he made this decision out of fear of a retaliatory nuclear strike by Russia.

Then the businessman himself commented on the situation. He stated that he did not restrict access to Starlink to the Ukrainian military, since the service was not initially activated in Crimea. At the same time, according to the businessman, he received such a request from Kiev. "If I had agreed to their request, SpaceX would have been clearly involved in a major military act and escalation of the conflict," Musk explained.