Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding investigations into Elon Musk for his refusal to activate Starlink satellite internet coverage near Crimea, Mediaite reported.
It was reported earlier this month that Musk revealed that he prevented Ukraine from attacking a Russian Naval base last year by refusing a request from Kyiv to activate Starlink internet access around Crimea.
Musk admitted on his social media platform X that Kyiv requested that Starlink be activated “all the way to Sevastopol” with the intent of sinking “most of the Russian fleet at anchor.” He said if he had agreed to Kyiv’s request, his company SpaceX would have been “explicitly complicit in a major act of war.”
In an upcoming biography of Elon Musk, author Walter Isaacson alleged that Musk spoke with Russia’s ambassador to the United States who warned him that an attack on Crimea could lead to a “nuclear response.”
As a result, Musk “secretly” instructed SpaceX engineers to deactivate Starlink coverage within 100 kilometers of Crimea, Isaacson wrote.
However, Musk disputed Isaacson’s account, saying on X that the Starlink regions in that area were never activated so SpaceX deactivated nothing.
While appearing on “CNN Primetime” with host Abby Phillip last Tuesday, Warran was asked if Musk should be permitted to have “veto power” over the war in Ukraine.
Senator Warren declared that no individual is allowed to make foreign policy decisions for the United States and said it should not be up to “one billionaire” to secretly change US foreign policy.
Warren told Phillips that Congress and the Pentagon should both investigate the arrangement with Musk and SpaceX that allows him to “turn off or restrict” internet access in Ukraine “in contravention of specific policies of the United States.”
She said US foreign policy decisions “belong to the federal government” and should not be “subcontracted off to one billionaire.”
