Elon Musk balks at funding Ukraine’s Starlink satellites, as envoy tells him to ‘fuck off’ – POLITICO

Elon Musk stated on Friday he is “simply following the advice” of a Ukrainian diplomat who instructed the SpaceX founder to “fuck off,” by searching for to dump duty for funding his Starlink web terminals in Ukraine.

Musk’s trolling got here after Ukraine’s former Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk and the nation’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted with hostility to Musk final week tweeting a sequence of Kremlin speaking factors, which he offered as a plan for peace in Russia’s conflict on Ukraine. This raised considerations in Kyiv and amongst its allies as as to if Musk was nonetheless on Ukraine’s aspect within the conflict.

Musk’s tweet got here in response to a CNN report that SpaceX had warned in a letter, dated September 8 and despatched to the U.S. Division of Protection, that it could now not afford to offer its Starlink terminals, that are essential for Ukraine’s navy communication.

“We aren’t able to additional donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the present terminals for an indefinite time frame,” SpaceX stated within the letter, which was signed by the corporate’s director of presidency gross sales, including that the Pentagon ought to take over the funding.

The Starlink satellite tv for pc communication system has been essential not just for Ukraine’s navy communication, but additionally for the federal government to take care of contact with commanders, for Zelenskyy to conduct interviews with journalists, and for civilian communications, connecting family members through the encrypted satellites.

Funding the methods would value greater than $120 million for the remainder of the yr and the worth tag might attain nearly $400 million for the following 12 months, in line with SpaceX.

Ukraine has acquired round 20,000 Starlink satellite tv for pc models. Musk stated final week that the “operation has value SpaceX $80 million and can exceed $100 million by the tip of the yr.”

Musk was initially lauded for offering the Starlink terminals to Ukraine, however in line with the SpaceX letter, the overwhelming majority had been partially or absolutely funded by different events, together with the U.S. authorities, the U.Okay. and Poland. Poland is the most important single contributor and has paid for nearly 9,000 terminals, which value $1,500 and $2,500 for the 2 fashions despatched to Ukraine, in line with the paperwork.

These governments additionally paid for a 3rd of the web connectivity whereas SpaceX funded the remaining, making up the dearer a part of the invoice, in line with SpaceX.

Among the many paperwork seen by CNN can be a request from Ukrainian Normal Valeriy Zaluzhnyi to SpaceX for nearly 8,000 extra Starlink terminals. SpaceX reportedly responded by recommending the request be despatched to the U.S. Division of Protection.

The spat comes shortly after latest reviews of Starlink outages, which have disrupted essential Ukrainian navy communication on the entrance traces.