Musk Negotiating with Pentagon on Continuing to Provide Internet for Ukrainian Forces

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is in talks with the Department of Defense about providing internet for Ukraine’s military. Starlink, a Musk-owned technology, has provided internet services to Ukraine at his own expense after Russia invaded in February. The tech CEO recently drew the ire of Kiev and some officials in Washington after suggesting a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine on Twitter. 

CNN says it obtained documents that show SpaceX requested the Pentagon take over the funding for Starlink. Starlink is a collection of low-orbit satellites that have allowed Ukrainians to access the internet after Moscow destroyed Kiev’s ground-based internet infrastructure. 

SpaceX claims it will cost over $30 million per month to provide internet to Ukraine. “SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months,” according to the CNN report. 

The documents show the financial burden of supplying Kiev with Starlink. One document shows Ukraine requested an additional 8,000 Starlink access points in July. SpaceX is currently providing Kiev with 20,000 terminals. 

An outside consultant working for SpaceX explained the company could not afford the request. “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 Zaluzhniy,” the consultant wrote. 

On Thursday, Musk tweeted his company is spending about $20 million per month to provide and maintain Starlink for Kiev. He said it is getting more expensive because of cyber attacks and jamming. 

Musk also took to Twitter to speculate on the release of SpaceX’s documents to CNN. “Strange that nothing was leaked about our competitors in space launch & communications, Lockheed & Boeing, who get over $60B,” he wrote.

He added that corruption could be the potential cause of the documents being leaked. “Wouldn’t be surprised to find this particular individual working there when he retires from DoD. Corruption at its finest,” he added. 

On Friday, The Department of Defense confirmed it was in talks with Musk’s company on continuing to provide internet services to Kiev. “I can confirm that the department has been in communication with SpaceX regarding Starlink,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.

However, Singh indicated the Pentagon was considering other potential companies. “There are certainly other Satcom capabilities that exist out there,” she added. “There’s not just SpaceX, there are other entities that we can certainly partner with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what they need on the battlefield.”

Musk tweeted it was “insanely difficult” for a low-earth-orbit “communications constellation to avoid bankruptcy — that was the fate of every company that tried this before.”

Despite providing Ukraine’s military with internet services over the past seven months, Musk has come under fire from Kiev and Washington in recent weeks. On October 3, the Tesla CEO tweeted a potential peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. Kiev’s Ambassador to Germany responded by telling Musk to “f*uck off.” Washington Post columnist Max Boot claims Musk was spreading Russian propaganda.  

Additionally, some internet outages near the battlefront in eastern Ukraine caused some American politicians to call for Musk to be investigated. “Evidently the Starlink system is down over the front lines of Ukraine. [Elon Musk] should make a statement about this, or, this should be investigated. This is a national security issue,” Congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. 

Musk says his space-based internet service is increasingly coming under attack.  Mykhailo Podolyak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, praised Starlink. “Like it or not, [Elon Musk} helped us survive the most critical moments of war. Business has the right to its own strategies. Ukraine will find a solution to keep #Starlink(opens a new window) working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations,” he said on Twitter. 

Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, said Starlink has been uniquely resistant to Russian missile attacks. “Over 100 cruise missiles attacked [Ukraine] energy and communications infrastructure. But with Starlink we quickly restored the connection in critical areas. Starlink continues to be an essential part of critical infrastructure,” he tweeted.