Elon Musk changes tune, says SpaceX will 'keep funding Ukraine' after asking for government support
Elon Musk said Starlink would continue funding Ukraine despite 'losing money'
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Elon Musk's Starlink will "keep funding Ukraine" after SpaceX asked the Pentagon for funding to continue the company's operations in the European country.
Musk made the announcement in a tweet on Saturday afternoon after sending a letter to the Pentagon in September stating that the company can't continue to keep funding Starlink services to Ukraine.
"The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free," Musk said in the tweet.
The September letter from Musk's SpaceX to the Pentagon in its request for funding further said that the company's cost for funding both the Ukraine military and government use of Starlink costs over $120 million through the end of 2022, and might come close to $400 million for the next year.
ELON MUSK'S SPACEX ASKS PENTAGON TO TAKE OVER STARLINK FUNDING IN UKRAINE
Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue / Getty Images)
According to the report, SpaceX asked the Pentagon to fund the company's operations for the Ukraine military and government's use of Starlink.
One Twitter user replied to Musk's Saturday tweet stating "no good deed goes unpunished," to which Musk responded "Even so, we should still do good deeds."
The apparent decision by the Tesla CEO comes after he made a series of comments about Russia's war in Ukraine in the beginning of October.
On Friday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Musk "helped us survive the most critical moments of war" and added that Ukraine "will find a solution to keep #Starlink working."
SpaceX has sent around 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine.
On Oct. 3, he made a poll asking Twitter users to vote on a theoretical "peace" deal or agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
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In this photo illustration a Starlink logo of a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX is seen on a smartphone and a pc screen (Photo by Pavlo Gonchar / SOPA Images/Sipa USA / Reuters Photos)
He then tweeted that "This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then…Also worth noting that a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome from this conflict is nuclear war."
ELON MUSK PUSHES BACK ON REPORT THAT HE TALKED TO PUTIN ABOUT WAR IN UKRAINE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen on a screen as addresses the audience from Kyiv during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Monday, May 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File / AP Newsroom)
When a Twitter user asked "Why give Starlink in the first place then?" Musk responded that it was Russia that invaded areas that would "unequivocally choose to be part of Ukraine."
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responding to Musk's poll, made a poll of his own: Which @elonmusk do you like more?"
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"I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive escalation of the war will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world," Musk replied.
FOX Business has reached out to SpaceX, which operates Starlink.
FOX Business' Lucas Manfredi contributed to this report.