Elon Musk says Starlink will keep funding Ukraine’s government ‘for free’ despite losing money
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reversed his final decision to end funding the Starlink terminals despatched to Ukraine, declaring on Twitter that the firm will proceed to provide “free” satellite online assistance to the govt even if it signifies the organization loses revenue.
“The hell with it,” Musk writes on Twitter. “Even nevertheless Starlink is however shedding funds & other companies are receiving billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
On Friday, a report from CNN discovered that SpaceX asked the government if it can pay for any more terminals sent to Ukraine, as very well as for current online providers. These bills could reportedly quantity to about $124 million by the finish of 2022 and nearly $380 million over the upcoming 12 months. Musk afterwards included on Twitter that Starlink simply cannot fund solutions in Ukraine “indefinitely,” noting in another tweet that Starlink’s getting rid of about $20 million a month to sustain its expert services.
Musk faced criticism immediately after polling Twitter end users whether or not Ukraine ought to achieve “peace” with Russia by surrendering Crimea and other annexed regions. This prompted a reply from Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, who claimed “fuck off is my quite diplomatic reply.” Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov later on tweeted that Musk “is amongst the world’s top rated private donors supporting Ukraine,” and that “Starlink is an crucial component of our crucial infrastructure.”
