You should know that Musk runs a commercial company. He is not a philanthropist, but a businessman and entrepreneur.
Therefore, you have to pay for using Starlink service, and you cannot continue to be free.
So far, SpaceX has donated approximately 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine, and the operation has spent $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of this year.
file shows that Musk's SpaceX wrote to Pentagon last month, saying it could no longer continue to fund Starlink services.
SpaceX also requires the Pentagon to provide funds from the Ukrainian government and military to use Starlink, which will cost more than $120 million by the end of the year, and may cost nearly $400 million in the next 12 months.
At present, SpaceX is also short of funds, so it proposed to the Pentagon to invest tens of millions of dollars a month, otherwise it may stop providing Starlink services to Ukraine.
Ukraine's Post-Truth says that At present, SpaceX refuses to continue to pay the traffic fees of Starlink terminals, and new terminals will also be charged for shipping to Ukraine.
You should know that the Russian-Ukrainian war will continue for a long time. Since February 24, Musk's Starlink has played a huge role in Ukraine's military industry and people's livelihood.
Starlink is not only used for voice and electronic communication, but also to help with the drone and send video back to correct gunfire. Currently, there are 25,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine.
More than half a month ago, Starlink encountered frequent offline in Khlsong and some eastern Ukrainian areas, which brought great inconvenience to Ukraine's counterattack. After
, Musk said that he did not deliberately close the Starlink service in the above areas.
Musk then proposed the conditions for the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This condition was appreciated by Russia, but opposed by Ukraine.
Musk seems to be under tremendous pressure now. Tesla factory in Germany suffered huge losses due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and it will be difficult to recover in the short term.
acquires Twitter to pay 44 billion US dollars. Now Twitter's stock price has shrunk and must buy it for 44 billion US dollars.
, and SpaceX also provides free services for Ukraine's Starlink terminals. Not only is the traffic free, but the terminal transportation and technical maintenance must be free. For Musk, this money is also a lot.
Of course money is a small matter. The biggest problem is that Musk's proposal for peace was rejected. Ukrainian also scolded Musk and blocked Musk's propaganda posters. Musk went from being very popular in Ukraine to falling into a dog.
In this case, Musk, as a businessman, will do his business according to business requirements and pay with Starlink terminal.
subscription fees, shipping fees, and maintenance fees must not be reduced. After all, SpaceX also spent real money.
SpaceX's request for the U.S. military to pay has angered the top Pentagon's executives, and a senior defense official said SpaceX had the "braves that looked like a hero" and had others pay so much, but now showed the Department of Defense's bills in hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to media reports, In May this year, SpaceX disclosed that its valuation had risen to US$127 billion and has raised US$2 billion this year. Musk is the largest shareholder of private company SpaceX.
Since Musk is a businessman, it is reasonable to refuse to use Starlink terminal for free. After all, to protect the interests of SpaceX's shareholders, it depends on whether the US military is willing to continue to pay for Starlink.
If the US military is unwilling to pay and Ukraine is unwilling to pay, the problem of disconnection of Starlink terminals in eastern Ukraine will not be solved.
SpaceX declined to comment on the frequent offline of Starlink terminals and their recent request to pay the Pentagon.
