Musk Says Starlink Will Continue Funding Ukraine “For Free”

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, went back on his decision to stop sponsoring the Starlink terminals shipped to Ukraine, declaring on Twitter that the business will continue to offer the country "free" satellite internet connectivity even if doing so results in financial loss. On Twitter, Musk states, "The hell with it." "We'll just keep funding Ukraine's government for free, even while Starlink is still losing money and other corporations are receiving billions of taxpayer dollars." According to reports, these costs might total $124 million by the end of 2022 and about $380 million over the following year. In a later tweet, Musk noted that Starlink is losing around $20 million a month in order to maintain its services and that Starlink cannot continue to support services in Ukraine "indefinitely." According to Musk, Starlink has supplied roughly 25,000 terminals to aid in the conflict in Ukraine.  The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Starlink disruptions have resulted in "catastrophic" communications breakdowns amongst troops.  The study "falsely states that Starlink terminals & service were paid for, whereas only a small percentage have been," Musk wrote in response to the story on Twitter. CNN, however, claims that money for the terminals was entirely or partially funded by the US government, the UK, and Poland. Musk faced criticism after asking Twitter users if giving up Crimea and other annexations would help Ukraine reach "peace" with Russia.  Andrij Melnyk, the ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, responded to this by saying, "Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply." Musk is "among the top private donors in the world supporting Ukraine," according to Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, and "Starlink is a crucial component of our critical infrastructure."