NEW YORK, October 14. /TASS/. US businessman Elon Musk confirmed on Friday that his company SpaceX could not afford to continue to pay for the operation of the Starlink satellite communications system in Ukraine.
"SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100 times greater than typical households. This is unreasonable," Musk said on his Twitter page.
Earlier, CNN obtained a copy of a letter in which SpaceX notified the US Department of Defense that it would stop paying for the operation of the Starlink system in Ukraine and had no plans for providing Kiev with new terminals indefinitely. According to the broadcaster, the message also contained a request to the Pentagon for paying for the supply of additional Starlink terminals to Kiev, as well as for the system’s services provided to the Ukrainian authorities and military. Ongoing service costs would total $124 million for the remainder of 2022, CNN said.