Ukraine war
Elon Musk allegedly paid Starlink for Ukraine himself – now the Pentagon is taking over
Starlink has been the digital lifeline since the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
© Lev Radin / Imago Images
Starlink is one of the most important technologies for Ukraine. The satellite internet from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX keeps the army and civilians online. But the finances were always disputed. Now the Pentagon got involved.
No question: Without Starlink, Ukraine would have a problem. Army communications would be severely restricted, and civilians would either be cut off from the internet altogether or subjected to Russian censorship. The fact that US billionaire Elon Musk made the technology available to the country almost immediately after the outbreak of war is still considered elementary support against the Russian invasion. If there wasn’t always a bitter aftertaste when it comes to finances.
How “BloombergNow reported, the Pentagon has meanwhile intervened and signed a contract with SpaceX. According to this, the United States Department of Defense should not only buy terminals, but also pay the monthly connection fees. The expenses fall under the “Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative” program. The Pentagon stated: “Satellite communications is an important part of the overall Ukrainian communications network, and the ministry has signed an agreement with Starlink for this type of service.”
Finally clarity instead of chaos through Elon Musk
The deal follows a chaotic zigzag that began shortly after the arrival of the first terminals in Ukraine. Because even if it seemed to the outside that Elon Musk, or SpaceX, pays for the hardware and the service is free, it didn’t take long for the billionaire to complain. Although countries such as Poland and France made funds available early on and the USA also assumed large parts of the costs for logistics, it was long said that the money for Starlink came “from private sources”.
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Then in the fall of 2022 the escalation: SpaceX sent the US government a letter and demanded 120 million US dollars for the current year and 400 million US dollars for the coming year. “We are not in a position to donate more terminals to Ukraine or fund the existing terminals indefinitely,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote in the letter.
Apparently that didn’t pan out, and Musk tweeted, noticeably miffed, “Fuck it…even if Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions in taxpayers’ money, we’re going to keep funding Ukraine for free.” As a result, Ukrainians spoke up, saying they would pay for their connection themselves – and were not sure why there was always talk of free use.
Not much came of Musk’s defiant, yet seemingly final assumption of costs – only a little later SpaceX shut down over 1000 terminals and it became known that negotiations with the US government were continuing in the background. There were also questions about the amount of costs demanded by SpaceX – because these exceeded the usual monthly price many times over. At the same time, Musk expressed increasing concern about the use of his technology in Ukraine, since the army had long used Starlink’s capabilities for front-line defense.
Pentagon pays – but bans on the army apparently remain
A little later, SpaceX found a rather unsatisfactory solution for Ukraine: unrestricted use at the front was prohibited. Loud “economist“, a block was then set up, which cuts the connection for objects with a speed of more than 100 km/h and in certain areas. Starlink can therefore no longer be used for drones and boats, not on Russian territory anyway. In addition, the use of Starlink terminals at the front is not without danger anyway.
But the fact remains: Starlink is the digital lifeline of Ukraine and it is essential that the satellite Internet is up and running. The deal with the Pentagon could finally bring much-needed calm to the situation that has caused so much unrest in the war-torn country. It is not known how much the USA will ultimately pay to SpaceX.
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