- US billionaire Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that SpaceX will continue funding Starlink internet service in war-torn Ukraine.
- In response Saturday to a follower who replied to Musk’s tweet, “No good deed goes unpunished,” Musk said, “Even so, we should still do good deeds.”
- Musk on Friday had doubled down on SpaceX’s request to the Pentagon in a series of tweets.
Elon Musk, US billionaire, tweeted on Saturday that SpaceX will continue paying Starlink internet service in the conflict-torn Ukraine, reversing course, it appears, after SpaceX asked the US military to cover the cost as reported by CNN.
SpaceX warns Pentagon
However, as CNN exclusively reported earlier this week, SpaceX warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month, according to documents obtained by CNN. SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet services have been a crucial source of communication for the country’s military during the war with Russia.
Additionally, it asked the Pentagon to assume responsibility for supporting Ukraine’s government and military’s usage of Starlink, which according to SpaceX might cost as much as $400 million over the course of the following year and would cost more than $120 million this year. Social media users responded to the revelation with a barrage of tweets supporting and denouncing the action.
“The hell with it… even if Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer dollars, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free”, Musk wrote in a Saturday tweet from his verified account.
Funding starlink
The Starlink satellite internet terminals produced by Musk’s SpaceX have enabled Ukraine’s military to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been decimated in its battle with Russia since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring.
The funding of the Starlink satellite communication system and other issues were discussed with SpaceX, according to a Pentagon official on Friday afternoon.
“No good deed goes unpunished”, a follower tweeted in response to Elon Musk on Saturday. Musk responded, “Even so, we should still do good deeds.”
Musk on Friday had doubled down on SpaceX’s request to the Pentagon in a series of tweets.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” read one post from Musk’s verified account.
A diplomatic reply
He also said that in asking the Pentagon to pick up the bill for Starlink in Ukraine, he was following the advice of a Ukrainian diplomat who responded to Musk’s Ukraine peace plan earlier this month, before the letter was sent to the Pentagon, with: “F*** off.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, responded earlier this month to Musk’s claimed peace plan for Russia’s Ukraine war by saying: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
SpaceX’s suggestion that it would stop funding Starlink also came amid rising concern in Ukraine over Musk’s allegiance. Musk recently tweeted a controversial peace plan that would have Ukraine give up Crimea and control over the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the question of who Musk sides with, he responded that he “still very much support[s] Ukraine” but fears “massive escalation.”
One Ukrainian official, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, appeared to extend an olive branch in a tweet posted Friday, writing, “Let’s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war.”
“Business has the right to its own strategies,” Podolyak’s tweet read. “(We) will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.”
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Source: CNN
