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Musk believes SpaceX cannot subsidies Ukraine’s Starlink broadband forever
- Elon Musk turned on Starlink in Ukraine in late February.
- Starlink was burning through approximately $20 million a month.
- SpaceX has provided thousands of terminals for use in Crimea.
After a story claimed that Elon Musk’s rocket business had asked the Pentagon to cover the costs of the donations, Starlink’s funding and tens of thousands more terminals could not continue to be provided, according to Musk’s statement on Friday.
Musk’s remark on the issue of funding for Ukrainian internet service comes after he infuriated many Ukrainians with a plan to end Russia’s war in their nation that included a territorial concession.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” “Posted by Musk on Twitter.
The rich CEO of Tesla said that Starlink was burning through approximately $20 million a month to keep its satellite services operating in Ukraine. He recently stated that Starlink in Ukraine has been enabled and supported with roughly $80 million invested by SpaceX.
A Source reported on Thursday that last month, SpaceX wrote to the Pentagon warning that it would be forced to discontinue funding the Starlink service in Ukraine unless the US military contributed tens of millions of dollars per month.
A request for comment from SpaceX was not answered.
After the Russian invasion crippled internet access, Musk turned on Starlink in Ukraine in late February. Since then, SpaceX has provided thousands of terminals.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine, stated this week that following more than 100 cruise missile attacks from Russia, Starlink services assisted in restoring the electrical and communications infrastructure in crucial locations.
Asserting that it is not targeting civilians, Russia refers to its action in Ukraine as a “special military operation.”
Musk received harsh condemnation from Ukrainians for his peace plan, in which he suggested that Ukraine permanently hand over control of the Crimea region to Russia, hold additional referendums under UN supervision to decide the fate of the Russian-controlled territory, and declare itself neutral.
In the occupied territory, where many people have been slain or driven away, legitimate referendums cannot be held, according to Ukraine, which claims it will never agree to cede land gained by force.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, was one of several who criticized Musk’s idea.
Andrij Melnyk, the departing ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, slammed the idea on Twitter, writing: “F* off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
In response to a post about the Starlink service’s future and the ambassador’s remark, Musk stated:
“We’re just following his recommendation.”
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