Ukraine War Update: Elon Musk Continuing Funds for Starlink

Ukraine+War+Update%3A+Elon+Musk+Continuing+Funds+for+Starlink

Audrey Perez, Reporter

The Ukraine/Russia conflict has been continuously going on since Feb. 24 and doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. More soldiers are being sent into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has instituted a draft and thousands are still dying.

Elon Musk is a billionaire and the chief executive of SpaceX. Musk created and continues funding the Starlink satellite, which was helping Ukraine stay online during the war. He had recently announced on Oct.14 that he could no longer continue to fund the satellite calling the circumstances “unreasonable”.

Following the announcement, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed that SpaceX has asked the Defense Department to pay for the services.

Then out of nowhere, four days later Musk revoked what he had said about paying for the satellite. He said that his company would continue to fund the satellite and the services it comes with.

“Even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayers’ dollars, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine government for free,” Musk said via Twitter.

These services have become crucial to soldiers and civilians.

These services coming from the satellite have been especially necessary for the Ukrainian army’s communication. This communication is very important for the army as they advance into territory occupied by Russia.

CNN reported that sometime last month SpaceX had sent a letter to the Pentagon asking it to take over the role of funding Ukraine’s use of the satellite.

Musk has provided Ukraine with services since the war began in February. Around 20,000 Starlink terminals have been delivered to Ukraine since then.

It is still not completely clear who is paying for Spacelink’s operation. A document by the New York times showed that The United States, The United Kingdom, and Poland are funding the satellite.

The document showed that SpaceX donated about 3,000 terminals to Ukraine, and other governments have provided enough funds for about 17,000 terminals.

For now, there’s still word that Musk is funding the Satellite, but for how much longer is still in question.

 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/world/europe/musk-ukraine-internet-starlink.html