The condemnation began when the Washington Post published excerpts from a new biography on Musk revealing that he turned down a Ukrainian request to help launch a major sneak attack in September 2022 on the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

There were numerous, legitimate reasons why Musk refused to activate his Starlink internet services for Ukraine to carry out the unprecedented, surprise attack on Russian naval vessels: Musk was providing terminals to Ukraine for free; he was not on a military contract at that time; the late-night request came directly from the Ukrainian—not American—government; and Starlink had never been activated over Crimea because of US sanctions on Russia. Most importantly, Musk was concerned that enabling the attack could result in serious "conflict escalation." He worried that he was being asked to turn on Starlink for a "Pearl Harbor like attack" and had no wish to "proactively take part in a major act of war," possibly provoking a Russian nuclear response.

In response to this nuclear aversion, Musk was called "evil" by a high-level Ukrainian official and "traitor" by American war enthusiasts. Rachel Maddow on the Russia conspiracy network MSNBC said Musk was "intervening to try to stop Ukraine from winning the war." Not to be outdone, CNN's Jake Tapper described Elon as a "capricious billionaire" who "sabotaged a military operation by Ukraine, a US ally," an act that demands "repercussions." For his part, chief Iraq war salesman-turned-Democrat-darling, David Frum, said that Musk must be stripped of his US government contracts for not reflexively acceding to the Ukrainian Starlink request, and former "progressive," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, called for an immediate Congressional investigation "to ensure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire."