Elon Musk, the SpaceX
CEO, had sent Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine following the
Russian invasion on February 24. The terminals became Ukraine’s primary method
of being connected to the internet. But the Starlink aid may be coming to an
end. “We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund
the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” said SpaceX director
of government sales in a letter to the Pentagon, CNN reported.

Around 20,000
Starlink satellite units have been donated to Ukraine, Elon Musk tweeted
Friday, adding that the operations have cost the company nearly $80 million and
will exceed $100 million by the end of the year. It is up to the Pentagon to
now fund the satellite packages.

Ukraine’s
military commanding general, General Valerii Zaluzhniy, had requested SpaceX
for 8,000 more Starlink terminals. An external consultant working for SpaceX,
in a separate cover letter to the Pentagon, said: “SpaceX faces terribly
difficult decisions here. I do not think they have the financial ability to
provide any additional terminals or service as requested by General Zaluzhiney.”

The report
about Starlink’s letter has surfaced days after Musk had a social media
showdown with Ukraine’s leaders and government officials over his peace plan. On
Friday, Musk said that in asking the Pentagon to foot the bill for Starlink in
Ukraine, he was following the advice of a Ukrainian diplomat to “F**** off.”

Andrij Melnyk,
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, had reacted to Musk’s peace plan saying: “F***
off is my very diplomatic reply to you.”

Musk said on
Friday: “We’re just following his recommendation.” The letter, however, was
sent before the Twitter spat. Amid all of this, there are also reports emerging
of Starlink outages in parts of Ukraine. A CNN reports said the outages
affected the entire frontline as it stood on September 30. “This has affected
every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front,” the CNN report stated
citing a person familiar with the outages. “Starlink is the main way units on
the battlefield have to communicate,” the source said.