NEW YORK, September 4. /TASS/. US entrepreneur Elon Musk said his Starlink satellite communication service is "a commercial system, not a military system," and reiterated that he chose not to activate in on Ukraine’s request to enable its attack on Crimea in 2022.
"We also make it clear in our terms of use that Starlink is a commercial system, not a military system. Use of Starlink for communications, including military communications, is fine, just like the military uses the Internet in general, but if we deliberately engage in explicit acts of war, then we are making Starlink a military system and other countries have every right to shoot down our satellites," Musk wrote on the X social network.
He said that he decided not to switch on Starlink above the Crimean Peninsula in 2022.
"Starlink was barred from turning on satellite beams in Crimea at the time, because doing so would violate US sanctions against Russia! We received an unexpected request in the middle of the night to activate Starlink in Crimea in a matter of a few hours from the Ukraine government, but received no request or permission to override sanctions from the US government," he said.
The US billionaire has repeatedly spoken in favor of resolving the Ukrainian conflict by diplomatic means, which drew criticism from the Kiev government.