Photo: flickr.com
Since Starlink satellite Internet terminals, created by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, first began arriving in Ukraine last spring, they have become a vital source of communication for the Ukrainian military, allowing them to fight and stay connected even when cellular communications and Internet networks were under attack by Russia, CNN writes.
To date, about 20,000 Starlink satellites have been transferred to Ukraine, and Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday that the operation cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.
But these charitable donations may come to an end, as SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military allocates tens of millions of dollars a month.
Documents obtained by CNN show that last month, Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it could no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as before. The letter also asks the Pentagon to take over the financing of the Ukrainian government and the military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims will cost more than $120 million by the end of the year and could cost about $400 million over the next 12 months.
“We are not in a position to donate terminals to Ukraine in the future or to finance existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote to the Pentagon in a September letter.
Among the SpaceX documents sent to the Pentagon and seen by CNN, there is a previously unreported direct request made to Musk in July by the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, for almost 8000 more Starlink terminals.