Musk Eats His Words: SpaceX To Continue Funding Ukraine's Starlink Service

Billionaire Elon Musk appears to do an about-face over the need for funding the Starlink internet service in Ukraine, saying his SpaceX rocket company would continue to fund the satellite network 24 hours after claiming it could no longer afford to do so, Nikkei Asia reported.

Photo Insert: Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko pose with Starlink user terminals.

"The hell with it. Even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayer dollars, we'll just keep funding the Ukraine government for free," Musk said on Twitter.

On Friday, Musk said SpaceX could not indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine.

The service has helped civilians and the military stay online during the war. He made his remark after a media report that SpaceX had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations of Starlink. The billionaire has been in online fights with Ukrainian officials over a peace plan he put forward which Ukraine says is too generous to Russia.

On Oct. 15, the US Defense Department received a request from SpaceX and Musk to take over funding for his satellite network, which has provided crucial battlefield communications for Ukrainian military forces since almost the beginning of its war with Russia.

US officials told the Associated Press (AP) that the issue has been discussed in meetings and senior leaders are weighing the matter. There have been no decisions.

In a statement on Friday, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said "we can confirm the department received correspondence from SpaceX about the funding of Starlink, their satellite communications product in Ukraine. We remain in communication with SpaceX about this and other topics."

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic