Tesla founder Elon Musk has been supplying Ukraine with the since the beginning of the war of aggression by Russia Satellite Internet Starlink and thus secures the digital infrastructure of the country. But this commitment could soon be over: In a letter to the Pentagon, which is available to the American broadcaster CNNMusk announces that the services will be discontinued. Unless the US military contributes tens of millions of dollars a month to fund it.
The reason for this is that Musk can no longer finance the Starlink services. According to the Tesla founder, it will cost a total of $120 million to deploy for the remainder of 2022. Another $400 million would be added for 2023.
“We are unable to donate more terminals to Ukraine or fund the existing terminals indefinitely”Musk writes in the September-dated letter to the US Department of Defense.
In July, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhniy is said to have 8,000 additional Starlink terminals have asked. In another letter to the Pentagon, an outside consultant working for SpaceX wrote: “SpaceX faces very difficult decisions here. I don’t think they have the financial capacity to provide the additional terminals or services requested by General Zaluzhniy.”
At the beginning of the war, Musk went to the Request of the Minister of Digital Affairs of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov to provide satellite internet to Ukraine. “While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine,” Fedorov wrote to Musk on Twitter at the time.
