Elon Musk said SpaceX has already withdrawn its request for the launch after the company reportedly asked the Pentagon to cover the cost of its service in Ukraine.
SpaceX wrote to the Pentagon in September that the company may not be able to afford internet service in the country, according to documents obtained by CNN and published Friday.
Musk said in a follow-up tweet that only 10,630 of the 25,300 terminals sent to Ukraine are paying for the service.
SpaceX representatives did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for confirmation of the withdrawal of funding requests made outside normal working hours.
The Defense Department referred Insider to SpaceX but according to a briefing by a senior military official, the department was in communication with SpaceX but had not given it any funding to support Starlink for Ukraine.
The European Union is reportedly considering a bill for the service, if SpaceX pulls in its funding per Politico.
Some officials have expressed concern about what would happen if the billionaire stopped covering the costs.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis suggested in an interview with Politico that Ukraine’s internet connection should not depend on a super-powerful person who might one day wake up and say it is no longer what I feel like doing.
He said Ukrainians could find themselves without the Internet.
Responding to a report in The Financial Times on Twitter, Musk said Starlink’s funding for SpaceX has already exceeded $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.