Elon Musk will stop funding the Starlink system of his company SpaceX, which is used by the Ukrainian army. This was reported tonight (Friday) on the CNN network. According to the report, the company’s government sales manager wrote a letter to the Pentagon last month requesting that the United States finance Ukraine’s government and military use of the system, which he claims will cost more than $120 million by the end of the year and could cost close to $400 million in the 12 months the following.
Since they first began arriving in Ukraine last spring, Starlink satellite Internet terminals have been a vital source of communications for the Ukrainian military, allowing it to fight and stay connected even if communications and Internet networks go down. According to SpaceX documents sent to the Pentagon and shown by CNN, the Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army, General Valery Zlozhny, requested almost 8,000 additional terminals.
“We are not in a position to continue donating terminals to Ukraine, or funding existing terminals indefinitely,” SpaceX’s government sales manager wrote to the Pentagon in a letter last month. So far, about 20,000 Starlink units have been donated to Ukraine, with Musk tweeting on Friday that “the operation has gone up to SpaceX 80 million dollars and will exceed 100 million dollars by the end of the year.”
In February of this year, Musk announced that he had connected Ukraine to “Starlink” – a venture to provide satellite Internet services, operated by the American company SpaceX, which he owns. This after Ukraine’s Internet infrastructure has been severely damaged since the Russian invasion began. Musk then promised that he would send more expensive internet equipment to Ukraine to help it deal with the crisis.