EU members ponder paying for Ukraine Starlink coverage

Oct. 17 (UPI) -- European Union members confirmed on Monday they are weighing whether or not to provide funding to Ukraine to ensure it retains internet access, by footing the bill for the country's Starlink service.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Monday any plans remain at an early stage.

"I figured that it's probably way better to have this as a contractual agreement between, let's say, a coalition of countries that could purchase a service from Mr. Musk, the Starlink service, and provide it to the Ukrainians and keep on providing it to Ukrainians," Landsbergis said in an interview with Politico Monday.

EU vice president Josep Borrell said Monday that the agency had instructed staff to come up with plans to ensure or even bolster coverage in Ukraine, should Tesla founder Elon Musk stop paying for the service.

There are more than 20,000 Starlink terminals currently in service in Ukraine and many of them are used by the military. While some of them were donated by SpaceX, many are paid for by the U.S. government, western allies or through crowdfunding.

Musk said on Friday that SpaceX, which owns Starlink, could not keep funding the satellites in Ukraine because the company is losing money. He changed his tune on Saturday, saying he would continue to pay the bill.

At the time, the billionaire said he would no longer fund Starlink service for Ukraine, later turning his ire toward a Ukrainian envoy who allegedly insulted him with vulgarities for proposing a peace plan to end the war that included ceding some Ukrainian territory to Russia.

Musk alleged that Starlink terminals for Ukraine, a vital part in its defense arsenal against Russia, use 100 times more data than an average household and have already cost around $80 million.

"To be precise, 25,300 terminals were sent to Ukraine, but, at present, only 10,630 are paying for service," Musk Tweeted on Monday.

The ramifications are clear. Countries aligned politically with Ukraine don't want to risk the country becoming susceptible to losing service because of the defense implications.

"For the time being, let's be happy that he (Musk) is paying for it. But we need to be on the safe side. The Ukrainians are very worried that he will still cut it off," an EU official told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday.