Musk again complains about costs to SpaceX of providing Starlink services in Ukraine
Elon Musk continued to complain that SpaceX does not receive money from the US Department of Defense (Photo:SHANNON STAPLETON \ Reuters)
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has again complained about the cost of providing satellite-based Internet services to Ukraine, but says his company SpaceX will continue provding them – for now.
Around 11,000 of the 25,000 Starlink internet terminals used in Ukraine are paid by “several other countries, organizations and individuals,” Musk tweeted on Twitter on Oct. 19.
The head of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, said his company loses about $20 million per month.
"SpaceX is losing about $20 million per month due to unpaid service and costs related to enhanced security measures for cyberwar defense, but we’ll keep doing it (sigh)," he wrote.
He also said his company had received no payments from the U.S. Department of Defense.
SpaceX had already withdrawn the request it made to the Pentagon for funding terminals services that it made in September, even before Musk's tweets suggested a path to a “Ukraine-Russia Peace” and Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk responded him with "F*** off!"
The Pentagon is considering paying for the Starlink satellite network for Ukraine. The EU is also considering paying for Starlink Internet for Ukraine, Politico reported on Oct. 17, citing two U.S. officials.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania noted this topic was discussed at the meeting of the 27 EU foreign ministers on Oct. 17. He stressed Ukraine's Internet access should not be left in the hands of a single "super-powerful" person who could "wake up one day and say, ‘This is no longer what I feel like doing and this is it.’"
Musk has continued tweeting about a "peace plan" for Ukraine, urging it to give up Crimea and other Ukrainian territory – demands that align with the wishes of the Kremlin.
On Oct. 17 he repeated his concerns about nuclear conflict and World War III.
“If Russia is faced with the choice of losing Crimea or using battlefield nukes, they will choose the latter,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
“Like it or not, Russia considers Crimea as its own territory,” he added.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
