The Ukrainian government is scraping together the tens of millions of dollars needed to keep the vital Starlink satellite communications systems operating in the war-ravaged country after unstable uber-billionaire Elon Musk said his SpaceX venture couldn’t afford to pay for the service indefinitely, the Associated Press reports.
While the Ukrainian government states that its relationship with SpaceX continues to be productive and the system is providing internet access around the country, Musk tweeted a whiny concession that he’ll pay for the service, not much of a sacrifice for a man worth more than $200 billion. “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 tweeted.
The Ukrainians have been using the system for communications, but its military application of it allows for the use of equipment to locate and target the Russian invasion forces, giving the defenders a great advantage thanks to the deployment of high-tech weapons systems supplied by Western governments.