The relationship between Elon Musk and Ukraine’s officials heats up and the billionaire responds by cutting off their internet connection. Tesla’s CEO allegedly asked the US government to pay for the last month’s internet bill for Ukraine.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s second-largest company suddenly announces that they no longer can afford to pay for Ukraine’s Starlink connection. The event comes after the online ‘beef’ between Elon Musk and Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials from Ukraine.
Angry Elon Musk Won’t Fund Starlink Internet In Ukraine Anymore
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.” – SpaceX officials, fronted by their director of government sales wrote to CNN.
Another consultant working for SpaceX confirmed their concerns to Pentagon as well. They state that the company might be facing financial difficulties.
“SpaceX faces terribly difficult decisions here. I do not think they have the financial ability to provide any additional terminals or service.”
Elon Musk, as usual, took to Twitter to state that “nothing was leaked about our competitors in space launch & communications, Lockheed & Boeing, who get over $60B from the US Department of Defence”.
“In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to the Internet via gateways.” – he continued in a different tweet. “We’ve also had to defend against cyber-attacks & jamming, which are getting harder. Burn is approaching ~$20M/month.”
Most probably the billionaire is frustrated by how the Ukrainian officials accepted his proposal for solving the conflict with Russia. The responses they wrote on Twitter were, let’s say, not so diplomatic.
“Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.” – Andrij Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany replied to Musk. “The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing Tesla crap. So good luck to you.”
Say what you will, but this is not a proper way to address anyone. Especially if you are a person who is in politics. Every same person in the world wants the war to stop. However, seems like the Ukrainian officials forgot who helped them communicate when the Russian forces cut all means of communication in the affected areas in Ukraine.
“Let’s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war.” – Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential advisor wrote on Twitter. “Business has the right to its own strategies. Ukraine will find a solution to keep £Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide a stable connection till the end of negotiations.”
In the meantime, the Ukrainian military reports a disastrous loss of signal of their Starlink connection. Until now, there is no confirmation if it has something to do with Elon’s ‘conflict’ with the Ukrainian officials.
Starlink’s terminals are connecting to low-orbit microsatellites and provide high-speed internet connection even to the most inaccessible places on Earth. The Ukrainian military has taken great advantage of the internet, as it was crucial for communication in recent periods.