A new controversy facing Elon Musk has caused him to reveal that SpaceX has spent $80 million of its own money to expand the company’s Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine.
Musk mentioned the $80 million in funding on Monday after he posted a controversial tweet that suggested Ukraine give up the disputed region of Crimea to Russia in an effort to end the ongoing war between the two countries.
“Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake),” Musk wrote. In the same tweet, Musk suggested UN-supervised elections be held in the Ukrainian territories Russia recently annexed to determine which country they belong to.
His post quickly sparked questions and outrage over whether Musk was reversing his support for Ukraine and backing the Kremlin. Since the start of the war, Musk’s company SpaceX has sent numerous shipments of Starlink dishes to Ukraine in an effort to keep the country online.
Most notably, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Twitter and asked with a poll: “Which @elonmusk do you like more? One who supports Ukraine? One who supports Russia?” (Over 79% of the respondents voted for the former.)
In response to the criticism, Musk said he continues to support Ukraine, but he fears the Kremlin will eventually escalate and trigger a nuclear war if the fighting expands to Crimea, which Russia currently controls. As evidence of his support for Ukraine, he pointed to SpaceX’s funding of Starlink in the country.
“SpaceX’s out of pocket cost to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$80M so far. Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro Ukraine,” he wrote in a tweet. “Trying to retake Crimea will cause massive death, probably fail and risk nuclear war. This would be terrible for Ukraine and Earth.”
Musk also used the $80 million figure to hit back at Russian chess grandmaster and Putin critic Garry Kasparov, who accused Musk of “moral idiocy” for repeating Kremlin propaganda.
“We gave Starlinks to Ukraine & lost $80M+ in doing so, while putting SpaceX & myself at serious risk of Russian cyberattack. What have you done besides tweet?” Musk asked.
In addition, Musk addressed what role the US government has played in funding Starlink’s deployment in Ukraine. In April, a US government agency quietly revealed it had paid $10 million to help bring 1,333 Starlink dishes out of 5,000 to the country. This prompted The Washington Post to point out the discrepancy with an earlier statement from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who claimed the US hadn’t given any funding for Starlink dishes headed to Ukraine.
On Monday, Musk said that only “a small number of terminals were paid for by the govt, vast majority were not. This is just another bs WaPo hit piece.”
Back in June, Musk revealed the company had sent a total of 15,000 Starlink dishes to Ukraine. The satellite internet service is currently supplying high-speed broadband in many war-torn areas across the country. In addition, the Ukrainian military has been relying on Starlink to transmit encrypted messages and to control drones, which can attack Russian forces. This has caused the Kremlin to issue veiled threats about retaliating against Starlink.