Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX, said on Friday that his company could not “indefinitely” fund internet service in Ukraine with its Starlink terminals, which have been critical in allowing the Ukrainian military to coordinate on the battlefield, including in recent offensives.
His comments, made on Twitter, came just over a week after he drew a fierce public rebuke from Ukrainian officials for suggesting a peace plan to end the war that included ceding territory to Russia.
More than 12,000 Starlink internet terminals, which were designed to work with satellites orbiting in space to provide online access, have been delivered to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in late February.
Mr. Musk took to Twitter on Friday after CNN reported that SpaceX had sent a letter to the Pentagon last month asking it to take over the funding of Ukrainian government and military use of Starlink. He did not mention the Pentagon in his Twitter comments, but talked about the difficulties of funding Starlink.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households,” Mr. Musk wrote on Twitter.
There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon or Ukraine’s military. SpaceX did not immediately respond a request for comment.
After saying last week that the operation in Ukraine had cost the company $80 million to date, Mr. Musk said on Friday that “burn” for the project was about $20 million a month.
“In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations,” he wrote on Twitter. “We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder.”
