Elon Musk: SpaceX Has Spent $80M to Support Ukraine With Starlink
A new controversy facing Elon Musk has caused him to reveal that SpaceX has spent $80 million of its own money to expand the company’s Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine.
Musk mentioned the $80 million in funding on Monday after he posted a controversial tweet(Opens in a new window) that suggested Ukraine give up the disputed region of Crimea to Russia in an effort to end the ongoing war between the two countries.
“Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake),” Musk wrote. In the same tweet, Musk suggested UN-supervised elections be held in the Ukrainian territories Russia recently annexed to determine which country they belong to.
His post quickly sparked questions and outrage over whether Musk was reversing his support for Ukraine and backing the Kremlin. Since the start of the war, Musk’s company SpaceX has sent numerous shipments of Starlink dishes to Ukraine in an effort to keep the country online.
Most notably, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Twitter and asked(Opens in a new window) with a poll: “Which @elonmusk(Opens in a new window) do you like more? One who supports Ukraine? One who supports Russia?” (Over 79% of the respondents voted for the former.)
In response to the criticism, Musk said he continues to support Ukraine, but he fears the Kremlin will eventually escalate and trigger a nuclear war if the fighting expands to Crimea, which Russia currently controls. As evidence of his support for Ukraine, he pointed to SpaceX’s funding of Starlink in the country.
“SpaceX’s out of pocket cost to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$80M so far. Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro Ukraine,” he wrote in a tweet(Opens
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