Elon Musk repented and will continue to finance the satellite internet network that he gave to Ukraine

The SpaceX founder made the decision while negotiating with the White House for funding for Starlink.

The executive director of SpaceX, Elon Muskannounced on Saturday that it would continue to finance the internet network star link in Ukrainereversing his statements of the previous day, when he called the US government to take over of that task.

“It doesn’t matter,” the world’s richest man tweeted.. “Although Starlink is still losing money and other companies are receiving billions of dollars from taxpayers, we will continue to finance the Ukrainian government for free,” he added, according to the AFP agency. Musk had said on Friday that SpaceX would not be able to bear the costs of Starlink in Ukraine indefinitely.

The United States military confirmed that it is in contact with the billionaire’s company for the financing of the key network.

The discussions come as Musk is embroiled in public spats with Ukrainian leaders who have reacted angrily over his controversial proposals to resolve the conflict, which included recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea.

Starlink, a constellation of more than 3,000 small satellites located in low Earth orbit, was vital to Ukraine’s communications in its fight against the Russian invasion of its territory.

SpaceX donated some 25,000 ground terminals to Ukraine, according to an updated figure provided by Musk last week.

Hours after the businessman’s request last Friday, in a statement issued later, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said: “We can confirm that the department has received correspondence from SpaceX regarding the financing of Starlink, its satellite communications product in Ukraine. We remain in communication with SpaceX on this and other matters.”

Musk’s generosity was hailed by the Ukrainians and considered a turning point in war tactics: the Russians could try to cut off Ukrainian ground communications, but they could not control space.

In a published tweet, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak said that Ukraine will find a solution to keep Starlink working.

“Let’s face it. Like it or not, Elon Musk helped us survive in the most critical moments of the war. Companies are entitled to their own strategies,” he tweeted. “We expect the company to provide a stable connection until the end of the negotiations”.

In response to several questions during the briefing, Singh said that the Pentagon was working with the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

“We know there is this demand, and the (satellite communications) capacity … is needed and we want to be able to ensure that there are stable communications for the Ukrainian forces and for Ukraine,” he said.

The request from the world’s richest man for the Pentagon to take over the hundreds of millions of dollars it says it costs to run the system had come after a Twitter war between Musk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And in tweets overnight Musk addressed the friction, hinting that it could affect his decision to end his company’s largesse in funding the systems.

With information from agencies

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Elon Musk repented and will continue to finance the satellite internet network that he gave to Ukraine