The American company SpaceX founded by Elon Musk has notified the Pentagon that it will no longer be able to supply and maintain Starlink terminals in Ukraine for free. Now SpaceX is asking the US Department of Defense to bear these costs, CNN reports , citing the company's letter to the Pentagon.
After the outbreak of the war, Starlink satellite Internet terminals began to arrive in Ukraine and became a vital source of communication for the Ukrainian military, allowing them to fight and stay connected even when cellular communications and Internet networks were destroyed.
To date, about 20,000 Starlink satellites have been transferred to Ukraine. According to Elon Musk, "the operation cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year."
SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it could stop funding the service in Ukraine if the US military does not provide tens of millions of dollars a month.
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine or fund existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” CNN quotes a letter from SpaceX’s director of government sales to the Pentagon.
On October 11, Vice wrote that Musk spoke with Putin before posting on Twitter an "end-of-war plan" that suggested Ukraine's consent to the annexation of its territories. Musk himself called these reports a lie. He said on Twitter that the last time he spoke with Putin was 18 months ago and they talked about space.