ELON Musk reportedly rejected a request from Ukraine to switch on his satellite internet service over Russian-occupied Crimea.
The world’s richest man apparently fears that allowing Ukrainian forces Starlink coverage over the region could pave the way to nuclear war.
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According to Business Insider, Musk, 51, is concerned it could be the disastrous outcome if Ukraine attempts to take back the peninsula from Vladimir Putin and his forces.
The billionaire has already provided the war torn country with thousands of satellite kits since Russia invaded.
And it hasn’t come cheap.
Responding to recent reports, Musk tweeted that the operation has cost his SpaceX company $80million since the war started.
And he expects it to exceed $100million by end of year.
The FT has also reported that the service has been suffering from outages.
It all comes amid an alleged call between the Musk and the Russian President.
It was revealed in an email sent to consulting firm Eurasia Group subscribers by the company’s founder Ian Bremmer.
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Bremmer claimed the Tesla founder had told him about a recent chat with Putin where the Russian leader raised the possibility of a nuclear attack.
Musk denied the report, saying on Twitter: “I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space.”
Bremmer said the tech billionaire spoke directly to Putin before he tweeted a “peace plan” calling for UN-supervised elections in four Ukrainian regions Moscow has annexed, Vice reports.
In a string of tweets last week, Musk suggested Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – should be formally recognised as Russia, water supply to Crimea be guaranteed and Ukraine remain neutral.
Musk – the world’s wealthiest man – then asked Twitter users to vote “yes” or “no” on the plan.
During the alleged conversation, the Russian president is said to have told Musk that a nuke attack was on the table if Ukraine refused to recognise Moscow’s annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Musk reportedly told Putin that “everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome”.
And Bremmer said he told him that Putin would accomplish his goals “no matter what”.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
