Elon Musk says Starlink will keep funding Ukraine’s government ‘for free’ despite losing money

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reversed his conclusion to cease funding the Starlink terminals despatched to Ukraine, declaring on Twitter that the organization will continue on to offer “free” satellite internet service to the authorities even if it implies the business loses money.

“The hell with it,” Musk writes on Twitter. “Even although Starlink is continue to getting rid of money & other corporations are having billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just hold funding Ukraine govt for free of charge.”

On Friday, a report from CNN uncovered that SpaceX questioned the governing administration if it can fork out for any more terminals despatched to Ukraine, as nicely as for current online services. These bills could reportedly amount to about $124 million by the conclusion of 2022 and practically $380 million about the up coming 12 months. Musk afterwards added on Twitter that Starlink cannot fund expert services in Ukraine “indefinitely,” noting in another tweet that Starlink’s shedding about $20 million a month to manage its expert services.

Musk confronted criticism after polling Twitter consumers whether or not Ukraine should attain “peace” with Russia by surrendering Crimea and other annexed areas. This prompted a reply from Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, who mentioned “fuck off is my really diplomatic reply.” Ukrainian vice key minister Mykhailo Fedorov afterwards tweeted that Musk “is among the world’s best non-public donors supporting Ukraine,” and that “Starlink is an necessary component of our important infrastructure.”