Starlink Internet is extremely important for the Ukrainian army. However, financier Elon Musk recently questioned whether he intends to continue paying the costs. Now the billionaire is rowing back. He still sees himself treated unfairly.
The company SpaceX of the high-tech billionaire Elon Musk now wants to continue financing the Internet offer for Ukraine via the Starlink satellite service. “Never mind…even if Starlink still loses money and other companies get billions in taxpayers’ money, we will continue to fund the Ukrainian government for free,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
A day earlier, the US billionaire had questioned the financing. SpaceX “cannot finance the system forever,” the entrepreneur said. The news channel CNN had previously reported that Musk had asked the US Department of Defense to pay for the costs.
The head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the richest person in the world said last week that SpaceX had already spent 80 million dollars (82 million euros) on the Internet offer for Ukraine. By the end of the year, spending is expected to exceed $100 million.
According to CNN, however, SpaceX figures show that around 85 percent of the first 20,000 internet terminals for Ukraine were at least partially paid for by countries such as the USA and Poland. They also came up for around 30 percent of the connection costs.
Starlink provides internet access through a system of more than 3000 small satellites. This offer is extremely important for Ukraine in the war against Russia: the armed forces rely, among other things, on Internet connections established via Starlink in their counter-offensive.
