Elon Musk's comment on the question of support for the internet service in Ukraine comes after he angered many Ukrainians with a proposal to end Russia's war in their country that included ceding some territory. He also asserted that SpaceX was not asking for the past expenses.
In a tweet, Elon Musk said, "SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable," Musk said on Twitter.
The billionaire boss of Tesla said Starlink was spending nearly $20 million a month, he called it a "burn", for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. Elon Musk recently said that SpaceX had spent about $80 million to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine.
According to a report, SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon in September saying it could not continue to fund the Starlink service in Ukraine. The letter mentioned that SpaceX may have to stop funding the Starlink internet service in Ukraine unless the US military helped with tens of millions of dollars a month.
Elon Musk activated Starlink in Ukraine in late February after internet services were disrupted after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation" in Ukraine. SpaceX has since given it thousands of terminals.
Ukraine's vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said this week Starlink services helped restore energy and communications infrastructure in critical areas after more than 100 Russian cruise missile attacks. Russia calls its intervention in Ukraine a "special military operation" and says it does not target civilians.
Elon Musk was praised when the Starlink internet services were placed in Ukraine a few days after Russia announced war.
The Tesla CEO, however, drew widespread criticism from Ukrainians over his peace plan. In his peace plan, Elon Musk proposed that Ukraine permanently cede the Crimea region to Russia, that new referendums be held under UN auspices to determine the fate of Russian-controlled territory, and that Ukraine agree to neutrality.
Ukraine says it will never agree to cede land taken by force, and lawful referendums cannot be held in occupied territory where many people have been killed or driven out. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was among those who criticised Elon Musk's proposal.
(With agency inputs)
