Elon Musk Can't Always Fund Starlink Services in Ukraine, Every Month Underscores IDR 309 Billion

JAKARTA - Elon Musk stated on Friday, October 14 that his rocket company, SpaceX, could not forever fund Starlink's internet service in Ukraine. In fact, direct internet services from satellites have helped Ukrainian civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.

Musk's comments on Twitter came after media reported that SpaceX had asked the Pentagon to pay for Starlink's donation. The billionaire was at odds worldwide with Ukrainian officials over the peace plan he proposed via Twitter. But the plan according to Ukraine is too generous to Russia.

A senior US defense official told reporters on Friday that the US Department of Defense would not confirm that ongoing talks with the company were related to payments. But he also said the Pentagon "continues to talk to SpaceX and other companies about SATCOM capabilities."

"Starlink's communications platform has been "highly effective on the battlefield" allowing Ukraine to support multiple device connections in a combat environment," a senior US military official said, quoted by Reuters.

The billionaire who runs Tesla told Starlink that he spends nearly $20 million a month maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. He recently said that SpaceX has spent about $80 million to activate and support Starlink there.

“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past costs, but neither is it able to fund existing systems indefinitely” and “shipped several thousand more terminals that have up to 100X more data usage than a typical household. This is absurd,” Musk wrote in Twitter last Friday.

"We also have to defend against cyber attacks & jamming, which is getting harder and harder," Musk wrote.

CNN reported on Thursday, October 13 that SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon last month saying it could not continue to fund Starlink's services in Ukraine and might have to stop funding it unless the US military provided the company with tens of millions of dollars a month in funding.

SpaceX itself has not yet responded to requests for comment from the media.

Musk activated Starlink, a satellite broadband service, in Ukraine in late February after internet services were disrupted due to the Russian invasion. SpaceX has given him thousands of terminals.

Starlink has become the main means of communication for Ukrainian forces in their fight against Russian forces.

On Friday, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would find a solution to keep Starlink's internet service working in Ukraine. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, supported him in a post on Telegram.

"The Starlink terminal works, works, and will work. Don't worry," he wrote, adding a smiley face emoji at the end.

Ukraine said this week Starlink services had helped restore energy and communication infrastructure in critical areas after more than 100 Russian cruise missile attacks.

Russia calls its invasion in Ukraine a "special military operation" and says it is not targeting civilians.

Musk himself has come under widespread criticism from Ukraine for his peace plan, in which he proposed that Ukraine permanently hand over Crimean territory to Russia, that a new referendum was held under the auspices of the United Nations to determine the fate of Russia's territory, and that Ukraine approved neutrality.

Ukraine said it would never agree to hand over the land it had taken by force, and legitimate referendums could not be held in occupied territories where many people had been killed or expelled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was among those who criticized Musk's peace proposal.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany to come out, Andrij Melnyk, also condemned the plan in a tweet telling Musk indecently to leave.

Musk, responding to posts referring to the fate of the Starlink service and the ambassador's statement, said: "We are just following his recommendations."

Republican US representative Adam Kingzinger quoted Musk's comments on Twitter as saying, "if there is evidence that @elonmusk is playing the game. I don't believe people like this can be trusted anymore to do business with our government."

While very expensive to implement, satellite technologies such as Starlink can provide internet for people living in rural or hard-to-reach areas where fiber optic cables and cell towers cannot be reached. The technology can also be a critical backstop when natural disasters disrupt communications.