The author has retracted that statement. It was always off, Musk simply didn't turn it on.

He was talking to me that night as it was happening. He said ‘We’re not enabling it on the Crimean coast.’ I thought ‘Okay that means he shut it off that night.’ He later said to me, and I’m sure he’s right, that it had been a policy already in place, that he had already decided not to allow — to geofence, it’s called — the Crimean coast. And that night, all he did was reaffirm the policy.

Starlink is not a military weapon, it is a consumer / business tool. By using Starlink as a weapon it puts Starlink/SpaceX under different regulations which they can't be under. Crimea was technically Russian controlled as well, and they weren't allowed to offer service in Russian occupied areas.

SpaceX wanted the government to be handling all of this so it would be fine and dandy, but the government wasn't. AFTER this happened, it helped give a shove to the government / military to step in and take control of Starlink in Ukraine. Now the US government/military is the one who dictates what should be happening in Ukraine with Starlink, as it should be.