U.S. State Dept welcomes Musk's move to continue financing Starlink services for Ukraine

This was reported by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried in Washington at a briefing on Tuesday, Ukrinform's own correspondent reports.

"We have seen Starlink play an important difference for Ukraine in providing that internet access, and," said Donfried.

In this connection, she emphasized that " we certainly welcome Elon Musk’s comments that SpaceX is willing to continue to fund the provision of Starlink to Ukraine."

As Ukrinform reported earlier, last week the American mass media reported that SpaceX had requested that the U.S. Defense Department to cover the cost of satellite Internet services in Ukraine, which is provided by Starlink terminals. Musk later clarified that he did not require reimbursement of costs already incurred, while adding that the company also cannot constantly finance the operation, which will have cost it more than $120 million by year-end and about $400 million over the next 12 months.

Amid the outcry caused by the tweets posted by SpaceX founder, last Saturday, he announced that he had decided to continue funding the Ukrainian government in this regard free of charge. This Monday, Musk also said he would create a donation feature on Starlink's payment page, and that his company eventually had the matter covered and officially withdrew its request for funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.