SpaceX to Keep Funding Starlink Internet Access in Ukraine, Elon Musk Says

Elon Musk said on Saturday his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for “good deeds,” a day after he said it could no longer afford to do so.

Musk 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 Tesla CEO said on Friday that SpaceX could not indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine. The service has helped civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.

Although it was not immediately clear whether Musk’s change of mind was genuine, he later appeared to indicate it was. When a Twitter user told Musk “No good deed goes unpunished”, he replied “Even so, we should still do good deeds”.

The billionaire has been in online fights with Ukrainian officials over a peace plan he put forward which Ukraine says is too generous to Russia.

He had made his Friday remarks about funding after a media report that SpaceX had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations of Starlink.

At the time, Musk had said Starlink was spending nearly $20 million (roughly Rs. 165 crore) a month, he called it a “burn”, for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. He recently said that SpaceX had spent about $80 million (roughly Rs. 660 crore) to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. The Pentagon declined to comment.

Musk activated Starlink in Ukraine in late February after internet services were disrupted because of Russia’s invasion. SpaceX has since given it thousands of terminals.

© Thomson Reuters 2022