Elon Musk said that he will continue to finance Starlink for Ukraine
His company previously proposed that the US government do it
The American entrepreneur, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, said that he would still continue to finance the Starlink satellite communication terminals for Ukraine, although the day before he said that his company wanted to stop doing so.
Musk wrote about this on Twitter.
“To hell with it… even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayer dollars, we’ll just keep funding the Ukrainian government for free,” – he tweeted.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, welcomed the message from Musk:
“You were supposed to destroy the Sith… So you did… Thank you for joining the right side. Ukraine appreciates it)”, he wrote in the comments.
Starlink satellites provide Ukraine and the military with communications in areas where all other means of communication have been destroyed.
By the end of this year, $120 million is needed to pay for Starlink services for Ukraine, and another $400 million will have to be spent next year. The SpaceX company offered the Pentagon to take over the financing of government and military needs.
At the same time, Lithuania made a proposal to finance the work of Starlink in Ukraine together with its allies.
“Internet communication in Ukraine is too important to leave it in the hands of one private person. Let’s find a way to build a coalition of allies of Ukraine to pay for Starlink, or find an alternative supplier. Lithuania is ready to make its contribution,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielus Landsbergis.
Elon Musk himself made it clear in posts on Twitter that he was offended by the words of the former Ukrainian ambassador Andrii Melnyk “fuck off”, which he expressed after Musk’s scandalous polls regarding the “peace plan for Ukraine”, which is more like the capitulation of Ukraine with the loss of Crimea and occupied regions.
However, the letter from SpaceX regarding the termination of funding for Starlink in Ukraine was sent to the Pentagon back in September, so it is not related either to Musk’s survey published in October or to his insults.
Perhaps the answer to these questions should be sought in Musk’s previous tweet, where he said that Russia is “trying to kill Starlink.” According to him, SpaceX has directed “huge” resources to protect the system from Russian attacks. However, despite this, Starlink can still suffer.
