MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. US entrepreneur Elon Musk said he had turned down Ukraine’s request to activate his Starlink system near the coast of Crimea, fearing that it may be used in Ukraine’s attack on Russian fleet.

"There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol," Musk wrote on X, a social network formerly known as Twitter. "If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."

CNN reported on Thursday with reference to Musk’s autobiography written by writer and journalist Walter Isaacson that the businessman had disconnected Ukraine from Starlink in 2022 to thwart a covert attack by the Ukrainian armed forces on the Russian fleet based in Crimea. CNN suggested that the decision was made for fears that Russia may use nuclear weapons to retaliate.