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Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday said that Starlink has not received any funding from the US Department of Defense. This comes a day after Pentagon was reported to consider funding the internet services in Ukraine. "No money from DoD, but several other countries, orgs & individuals are paying for ~11k/25k terminals," Musk said.
Musk has said that SpaceX spends nearly $20 million a month for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. This is in addition to the $80 million that has been spent to enable and support Starlink there.
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SpaceX is losing approximately $20 million a month from unpaid service and costs related to security measures for cyberwar defense, but "we'll keep doing it (sigh)", Musk tweeted.
Politico had reported on Monday that Pentagon is considering funding the services in Ukraine. However, no official word on the same has been said yet. Last week, SpaceX had said that it might have to shut the services in Ukraine as it cannot bear the cost any more. The next day, Musk also stated the same, saying that the costs are getting too much to bear and the company will have to pull the plug.
He later said that he will continue to fund the services himself.
The matter was made bigger by the fact that a Ukraine official had criticised Musk for offering a solution on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Musk's statement about stopping services came after this and it was assumed that his actions were in reaction to the Ukraine official. He even posted a sly tweet about the same.
(With inputs from agencies)