SpaceX can no longer pay for Starlink’s work in Ukraine

The American company SpaceX told the Pentagon about the impossibility of further paying for the work of Starlink satellite Internet in Ukraine.

The company’s statement is reported by the TV channel CNNreferring to relevant documents. According to him, back in September, Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, sent a statement to the Pentagon stating that the company “can no longer continue to finance the work of Starlink, as before.” The letter contained a request to the department, in the interests of the government and the army of Ukraine, to take over the financing of Starlink services. The letter also said that the Pentagon would have to allocate $120 million before the end of the year, and another $400 million over the next.

20,000 Starlink terminals have been handed over to Ukraine to date. As our publication wrote earlier, the Financial Times recently accused Elon Musk that he “dropped” the network in Ukraine to help Russia. The publication reported that thousands of Starlink terminals were purchased by the US government and donors to help Ukrainian troops fly drones, obtain critical intelligence and communicate with each other in areas where there are no other secure networks. Musk responded by focusing on this aspect:

“Bad FT report. This article falsely claims that Starlink terminals and services were paid when only a small percentage was paid. This operation cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year. As for what is happening on battlefield, it’s classified.”

Some sources, in response to the Financial Times accusations, note that “not a single Starlink” fell “in eastern Ukraine. It’s just that the Ukrainian offensive was so fast that it entered areas where there was no coverage, since they were under Russian control.

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