Musk: SpaceX might keep funding satellite service in Ukraine
Early Friday, Musk tweeted that it was costing SpaceX $20 million a month to support Ukraine’s communications needs.
LEARN MOREPosted: 12:35 p.m. EDT Sep 8, 2023
Elon Musk appears to hold some power in how the war in Ukraine is unfolding.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Musk donated Starlink connectivity terminals to the country's military.
Musk's company SpaceX has sent thousands of low-orbiting Starlink satellites to space, which provide a way for people to connect to the internet anywhere in the world.
An excerpt of a biography on Musk obtained by CNN says Musk ordered his engineers in 2022 to disable the satellite network near Crimea, where Ukraine was reportedly going to attack a Russian naval fleet.
In a post on his social media platform X, Musk responded to the report, saying the Starlink satellites in question were never on in the first place.
"SpaceX did not deactivate anything," he stated.
He added, however, that there was a request from "government authorities" to activate Starlink in the region.
"The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor," Musk stated. "If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."
Musk's position on Ukraine has appeared to change over the course of the war. Initially, he appeared to fully support Ukraine's independence, but he has since issued statements asserting that the country should cede some territory to Russia if it would end the war.
"Both sides should agree to a truce," Musk stated. "Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose small pieces of land, with borders barely changing. This is not worth their lives."
