Written by: Katie Scott, Business Reporter
Despite suggesting huge financial losses, Elon Musk has tweeted that his company, SpaceX, will continue to fund Starlink internet in war-ravaged Ukraine.
On 15th October, the billionaire tweeted: “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
The Tweet came just days after CNN reported that it had seen a letter in which SpaceX asked the US military to start funding the Ukrainian government and military’s use of Starlink. “We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote to the Pentagon in the letter.
Musk says that there are around 25,000 ground terminals in Ukraine. However, reports The Guardian, some Ukrainians have responded by pointing out that they bought their Starlink terminals and are paying for the service.
This also comes after Musk caused outrage by laying out his plan for peace in Ukraine, which included making the Crimea formally part of Russia. He set up a poll for his followers. “I’m trying my hardest to de-escalate this situation and obviously failing,” Musk said in reply to a Tweet from follower and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom.
