Billionaire SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said on Saturday that his company will continue to fund the operation of the Starlink internet service in Ukraine, making it a digital lifeline for both the military and civilians. It has become.
Musk, the world’s richest man, drew criticism Friday when he said on Twitter that his company could not fund Ukraine’s use of Starlink “indefinitely.” This service is critical to Ukrainian military communications as it marches into territories occupied by Russia and defends against continued Russian attacks.
CNN reported SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon Last month, he called for Ukrainians to take over the funding for Ukraine’s use of Starlink, which is built and operated by SpaceX.
But on Saturday, Mr. Musk changed course and posted the decision again on Twitter.
“That’s hell,” he wrote. He added that “Starlink is still in the red” and “while other companies receive billions of dollars in taxes”, it “continues to fund” the Ukrainian government gratuitously.
Musk helped provide access to services for Ukraine after Russia invaded in February. About 20,000 Starlink terminals designed to work with satellites orbiting space to provide online access have been delivered to Ukraine.
It is not entirely clear who is paying for the service. According to documents obtained by The New York Times, as of September the Starlink terminals were partly funded by her three Western governments: the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland.
According to the document, SpaceX donated about 3,000 devices to Ukraine, while other governments and allies funded about 17,000. Musk has previously said SpaceX pays a monthly fee for services streamed to the device.
early this month, Mr Musk said Operating in Ukraine cost SpaceX $80 million. On Friday, he added that project “burning”, which refers to the money SpaceX spent, was about $20 million a month.
As of July, the Ukrainian military was using about 4,000 mobile devices. That month, the military asked SpaceX for an additional 6,700 of his, but has yet to receive it.
Musk’s comments to Starlink come more than a week after he came under fire from Ukrainian officials for proposing a peace plan that included ceding territory to Russia to end the war. It is from