{"id":941,"date":"2022-10-15T11:49:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T11:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/?p=941"},"modified":"2022-10-15T11:49:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T11:49:19","slug":"spacex-says-it-can-no-longer-fund-starlink-internet-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/15\/spacex-says-it-can-no-longer-fund-starlink-internet-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink internet in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX has said it cannot afford to continue to donate satellite internet to Ukraine and has asked the US government to pick up the bill, according to a report, as the relationship between the billionaire and Kyiv breaks down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cWe are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,\u201d<\/p><cite>SpaceX\u2019s director of government sales wrote, <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2022\/10\/13\/politics\/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-ukraine\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"in a letter seen by CNN\">in a letter seen by CNN<\/a>.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In a separate letter reported by CNN, an external consultant working for the company told the Pentagon: \u201cSpaceX faces terribly difficult decisions here. I do not think they have the financial ability to provide any additional terminals or service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain &amp; replenish satellites &amp; ground stations &amp; pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways. <br><br>We\u2019ve also had to defend against cyberattacks &amp; jamming, which are getting harder.<br><br>Burn is approaching ~$20M\/month.<\/p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1580811694225653760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But the request for funding comes after a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1576969255031296000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"high-profile intervention\">high-profile intervention<\/a> from Musk, who suggested Ukraine should seek an end to the war by surrendering territory to Russia and committing to remain \u201cneutral\u201d. His tweets led to a furious reaction from the Ukrainian government, which had previously praised Musk for offering the Starlink system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MelnykAndrij\/status\/1576977000178208768?s=20&amp;t=oSxEFJm93z7vJlnwL31sdw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"tweeted\">tweeted<\/a> Andrij Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday that Kyiv would find a solution to keep Starlink working. <strong>\u201cLet\u2019s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war,\u201d<\/strong> Podolyak wrote on Twitter. \u201cBusiness has the right to its own strategies. Ukraine will find a solution to keep Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ukrainian forces had already reported problems with Starlink coverage in recent days, after Musk\u2019s attempted peace process but before the latest reports of a funding gap. Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9a7b922b-2435-4ac7-acdb-0ec9a6dc8397\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"the Financial Times reported\">the Financial Times reported<\/a> a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d loss of communication occurred as soldiers in the Ukrainian army pushed forward into land previously occupied by Russia, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The terminals, which connect to a fleet of low-earth orbit micro satellites launched by SpaceX in order to provide high-speed internet access across much of the world, have proved crucial to the Ukrainian war effort since they were donated by the company earlier this year. As well as enabling rapid secure communication between troops on the ground and headquarters, the satellites also help the army operate the drones that have proved pivotal in reshaping the rules of the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Tuesday, Musk <strong>denied<\/strong> a report that he had spoken directly to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. Ian Bremmer, the president of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said: \u201cElon Musk told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine. He also told me what the Kremlin\u2019s red lines were.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX has said it cannot afford to continue to donate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yareport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}