Musk said on Friday that Starlink can’t keep paying for services in Ukraine “forever.”
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, changed his mind about not paying for the Starlink terminals that were sent to Ukraine. He said on Twitter that the company will keep giving the government “free” satellite internet service, even if it means losing money.
In a tweet, Musk says, “To hell with it.” “We’ll keep giving the Ukrainian government money for free, even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of dollars from taxpayers.”
CNN said on Friday that SpaceX asked the government if it could pay for any extra terminals that were sent to Ukraine as well as the internet services that are already there. According to reports, these costs could add up to about $124 million by the end of 2022 and almost $380 million over the next year. Musk later said on Twitter that Starlink can’t keep paying for services in Ukraine “forever.” In another tweet, he said that Starlink is losing about $20 million a month to keep its services going.
Musk says that Starlink has sent about 25,000 terminals to Ukraine to help with the war there. During the war, the service has helped keep the Ukrainian military and civilians online, even though the country is still getting blacked out by Russia’s missile strikes and cyberattacks are still a big risk.
The Financial Times reported earlier this month that problems with Starlink have made it “catastrophic” for troops to talk to each other. Musk argued against the report on Twitter, saying that it “falsely claims that Starlink terminals and service were paid for, when only a small percentage have been.” CNN says, though, that the US government, the UK government, and Poland paid for some or all of the terminals.
Musk got into trouble when he asked Twitter users if Ukraine should make “peace” with Russia by giving back Crimea and other areas that Russia had taken over. Andrij Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, said, “Fuck off is my very diplomatic response.” Later, Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine, tweeted that Musk “is one of the most important private donors to Ukraine” and that “Starlink is an important part of our critical infrastructure.”
