Blinken punts on whether Elon Musk sabotaged Ukrainian war efforts

Secretary of State Antony Blinken sidestepped questions on Sunday about reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk crippled Ukrainian war efforts by not enabling Starlink internet access for a key drone attack on a Russian fleet.

Blinken was asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” about excerpts from a recent biography on the tech guru claimed that he rankled Ukrainian officials by not responding to their request to use Starlink for the attack in the Black Sea.

“I can’t speak to a specific episode,” Blinken replied.

“Starlink has been a vital tool for Ukrainians to be able to communicate with each other and particularly for the military to communicate in their efforts to defend all of Ukraine’s territory,” he added.

Musk has previously publicly feuded with the US government over what he said was a lack of compensation for giving Ukraine access to Starlink, a constellation of satellites that can grant internet capabilities to remote regions.

The billionaire said last week that officials wanted him to provide internet access all the way to Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

The internet access would have presumably been used to help orchestrate a major raid on a Russian naval fleet.

Musk declined to provide the access, keen on avoiding having SpaceX be “complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” he said.

The “Elon Musk” book’s author, Walter Isaacson, later clarified that Ukrainians “thought coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not,” which is why some erroneous reports suggested Musk cut off access.

The episode still illustrated Musk’s immense influence over government policy, particularly given Starlink’s paramount importance to Ukrainian military communications.

“It sounds like Starlink’s so important that the US government doesn’t want to risk offending a capricious billionaire,” CNN host Jake Tapper needled Blinken, who declined to entertain that jab.

Musk teased that SpaceX is crafting a “Starshield” system that will entail similar functionality to Starlink, but will “be owned and controlled by the US government.”

Behind the scenes, the space tycoon fretted that Russia could retaliate against an attack on its naval fleet with nuclear weapons, according to Tapper.

“We ourselves have always had to factor in what Russia may do in response to any given thing that we or others do or the Ukrainians do,” Blinken noted.

Blinken declined to comment on whether any potential Musk’s correspondence with the Russian government alarmed him

“I can’t speak to conversations that may or may have not happened, I don’t know,” Blinken replied.

The secretary of state touched down in Ukraine last week and announced $1 billion in aid to the war-torn nation.