Elon Musk, SpaceX’s billionaire chief executive, abruptly declined on Saturday, saying his company would continue to fund the operation of internet service Starlink in Ukraine, where it has become a lifesaver. Digital wings for both soldiers and civilians.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, was criticized on Friday when he said on Twitter that his company could not fund Ukraine’s use of Starlink “indefinitely”. Service has been importance for Ukrainian military communications as troops enter Russian-occupied territory and defend against continued Russian attacks.
CNN reported that SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon last month asked them to accept funding for Ukraine’s use of Starlink, built and operated by SpaceX.
But on Saturday Mr Musk changed course, again posting his decision on Twitter.
“What the hell is this,” he wrote. He added that “although Starlink is still losing money” and “other companies are collecting billions of dollars in taxes”, “we will continue to give free funding to the Ukrainian government.
Mr. Musk helped provide Ukraine with access to the service after the Russian invasion in February. About 20,000 Starlink terminals, designed to work with space-orbiting satellites to provide online access, have been delivered to Ukraine.
It’s not entirely clear who billed the service. A document obtained by The New York Times shows that as of September, Starlink terminals were partially funded by three Western governments: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland.
The document shows that while SpaceX donated about 3,000 terminals to Ukraine, other governments and allies provided funds for nearly 17,000. Musk has previously said that SpaceX is calculating monthly bills for the service that is streamed to terminals.
In the first day of this month, Mr. Musk said Operation in Ukraine cost SpaceX $80 million. On Friday, he added that the “burn” for the project, referring to how much SpaceX spends, was about $20 million a month.
As of July, the Ukrainian military is using about 4,000 mobile terminals. That month, the military requested 6,700 more from SpaceX but has yet to receive it.
Mr Musk’s Starlink comments come more than a week after he received fierce criticism from Ukrainian officials for propose a peace plan – which included ceding territory to Russia – to end the war.
