Elon Musk Says SpaceX Cannot Fund Starlink Service In Ukraine "Indefinitely," Asks US To Pay Up

The Starlink satellite service has kept Ukraine and its military online in their war against invading Russian forces. The space company intervened to help restore communication and internet access in the war-torn country.

The Starlink kit comes with a terminal designed to withstand a range of temperatures and conditions such as extreme heat and cold, gale-force winds, snow, rain and hail.

The kit includes bases that allow the terminal -- which looks like a white satellite dish and is 19 inches long and 12 inches wide -- to be deployed at ground level or on a roof top in rural or disconnected areas. Because the system already comes connected to the internet and can adjust itself to find the optimum connection to the constellation of Starlink satellites, the set-up procedure is simple. As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk himself said, the set-up instructions for the system are simply: "Plug in socket. Point at sky."

Musk was hailed as hero around the world when he announced his company was donating thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukraine. However according to a recent report, SpaceX has asked United States government to pay for more terminals, as the private company cannot afford to fund the service "indefinitely" in the war-torn country.

In a tweet Friday, the SpaceX CEO explained that he does not want reimbursement for past expenses in helping Ukraine. But, that the company “also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households," he wrote. "This is unreasonable.”

Russia has sought to jam signals and phone service in the eastern and southern combat zones in Ukraine. A Starlink cutoff would cripple the Ukrainian military’s main mode of communication which its forces have used to live-stream drone feeds, correct artillery fire and contact homes. According to one Ukrainian commander Friday, “fighting without Starlink service at the front line is like fighting without a gun.”

Musk faced backlash online last week, from Ukrainian officials after he suggested a peace deal to end the war. Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, had some choice words for the SpaceX CEO. “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk,” he tweeted at the time.

Replying to a Twitter post Friday that referenced the Ukrainian ambassador and reports of SpaceX ending its free service to Ukraine, Musk joked:  “We’re just following his recommendation.”

Critics of President Joe Biden argue that the US policy is dangerously leading to a hardening  of Ukrainian government's stance against negotiating a peace deal with Kremlin, raising concerns over a possible nuclear weapons showdown.

And with billions of dollars flowing into the defense of Ukraine, from European governments and the Biden administration, critics agree that SpaceX should not be expected to provide their services for free indefinitely.