SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has reversed his stance, saying that his company would continue to fund the operation of the Starlink internet service in Ukraine for free.
The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022
Responding to his tweet, one of his followers said, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Musk replied, saying, “Even so, we should still do good deeds.”
Even so, we should still do good deeds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022
Last week SpaceX informed Pentagon that it might stop funding internet services to Ukraine after Musk spoke about the out-of-pocket expenses SpaceX has to incur to provide connectivity to Ukraine.
On Friday, Musk said on Twitter that SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals with data usage up to 100 times greater than typical households.
Since Ukraine went to war, Starlink satellite internet terminals have allowed Ukraine’s military to fight and stay connected even though Russia has destroyed internet networks.
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Earlier this month, Musk — who also heads Tesla Inc TSLA — drew strong criticism from Ukrainian officials after he posted a Twitter poll gauging support for a peace plan for Russia’s Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, responded to Musk’s claimed peace plan by saying: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you, @elonmusk.”
Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk
— Andrij Melnyk (@MelnykAndrij) October 3, 2022
In another tweet, Melnyk added, saying, “the only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap. So good luck to you.”
Musk also drew flack from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, in response to Tesla CEO’s tweet, posted another poll asking his followers if they liked a Musk who supported Ukraine or one who backed Russia.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Oberhaus via Wikimedia
