Ukraine suffered a major blow after Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Starlink internet service was compromised when 1,300 of the military's satellite units went offline in the past week.
Musk's private company SpaceX produced the small and easy-to-use satellite dishes that have been praised as game-changers in communication for Ukraine's military troops. The internet service has allowed soldiers to fight and stay online even as cellular phones and other internet networks have been taken down amid its war on Russia.
Starlink Outage in Ukraine
However, worries have recently risen over the satellite service's dependability after discussions regarding funding were revealed and outages started being reported near the frontlines. There was a report that SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon in September that claimed it had already spent nearly $100 million by funding Starlink in Ukraine, arguing that it could no longer continue the service.
The letter also requested that the Defense Department take over more of the funding for Ukraine's military communication, which it estimated would be worth tens of millions of dollars every month, as per CNN.
Only days after the report of the letter was revealed, Musk appeared to reverse course and claimed that his company had withdrawn its request to the Defense Department. In a Twitter post, he said, "The hell with it. We'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free."
Negotiations between the Defense Department and SpaceX continued despite Musk's claim that the company withdrew its request, a senior defense official said. The Pentagon official noted that negotiations between the two sides were definitely moving forward and everyone in the Defense Department knew that they were going to fund SpaceX's Starlink internet service.
Musk attended a ceremony on Wednesday for the U.S. Space Force which also included Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. The tech billionaire has also been involved in the high-profile takeover of Twitter.
According to CNBC, with the dependability of the Starlink internet service, Ukraine has started searching for alternatives for its troops' communication. On Thursday, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that the Ukrainian government was looking for other ways to provide internet service to its troops.
Other Means of Communication
During a Thursday press conference held at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Fedorov noted that he has not seen any issues with Musk's financing of Starlink in Ukraine. The official added that the system was working fine, despite the tech billionaire's claims.
However, the Ukrainian official added that the Ukrainian government was searching for new satellite communication tools to support its IT infrastructure, which has been disrupted by Moscow's advance.
On the other hand, Maj. Roman Omelchenko, referring to Musk's tweets, said that the loss of Starlink would leave Ukraine scrambling during the brewing battle for Kherson. The 59th brigade's communications chief said during an interview that if the satellite service is lost, it would deal a major blow to the country's means of communications amid a crucial point in the war, Yahoo News reported.