Cronkite school of journalism.
Judy: Elon Musk said today that
his company spacex can no longer
fund the satellite system in
Ukraine.
It's helped the Ukraine military
and civilians stay in touch
during the war.
It follows backlash that musk
received for suggesting a peace
plan to end the war that would
require Ukraine cede territory
to Russia.
John Lang has the latest.
Reporter: Since February, more
than 12,000 starlink internet
terminals have been delivered to
Ukraine.
They've been crucial.
Operators rely on the service to
send live fields to targeting
unit.
It's also been vital to troops
staying in touch with their
families.
Today musk said spacex cannot
indefinitely fund the system.
When -- which he says cost
nearly $20 million a month.
Last month musk asked congress
to take over the service.
Felicia joins us for more.
How important has this system
been to Ukraine in this war?
>> American and Ukrainian
officials have described it to
us as a total game changer,
super important.
As us, it helps drone operators,
it helps people stay in touch.
It's basically a backup
communications network when cell
phone and internet
infrastructure are down and
especially as Ukrainian forces
are retaking area in the west of
the country where there's not a
lot of Ukrainian cell coverage.
>> Has musk just been donating
this?
>> It's been a mix.
Musk and spacex.
The U.S. Government and European
countries have donated some.
Also there's been some crowd
funding efforts but he has
donaed some terminals as well.
>> And musk asked the Pentagon
which if they could take in
over.
Where do things stand with that?
>> The Pentagon said they are in
active conversations with spacex
and musk trying to figure it
out.
They said they've received this
communication from musk
expressing concern about the
pricing.
I know American officials I've
spoken to made it clear that
they see satellite
communicationings and these
star-dink terminals in
particular as being very, very
important to Ukraine's war
effort and said they're in
ongoing talks with spacex and
Elon Musk.
They also identified some other
companies, they would not say
which ones that also provide
this kind of satellite function
and they're looking into that as
well.
>> Given all the military
assistance the United States is
providing, could this get
wrapped into that military aid?
>> I think that's something
we're trying to report out and
figure out.
Some analysts suggested to us
maybe the Pentagon would use the
defense production act, for
example, to try to fund this but
I think some U.S. Funding is
going to communications and
satellite communications,
infrastructure and so on so I
think it depends on what the da
dollar amount is that they work
out, how it will be kind of
covered with the funds that have
been allocated and maybe
congress will have to play a
role but I think that will play
out in the coming days and
weeks.
>> You and your colleagues at
the financial times have
reported there have been wild
areas of Ukraine where in
service has gone down, that it's
not operating anymore.
Any idea what caused this
shutdown and how has that
affected Ukrainian military
operations?
>> Beginning blast last month,
Ukrainian troops started telling
us what they described in some
places as catastrophic outages.
I think we're still trying to
get to the bottom of what's
going on.
Ukrainian officials ABC they
suspect there might be gio
graphic limits that spacex is
imposing.
Some of these outages kind of
came as Elon Musk was tweeting
about a peace plan for Ukraine,
and Ukrainian initials and lots
of observers see as quite
favorable to Russia.
Would involve annexing territory
that Ukraine has made clear they
don't want to give up.
What might be known as gio
fencing or limits in some areas
might be one explanation.
Officials have said Russian
jamming might account for some
of it as well.
Perhaps musk and spacex don't
want Russian forces to be able
to use the system so they're
being cautious about turning it
back on in places where
Ukrainian troops have arrived.
And since we wrote that original
story.
We've heard that some of these
affected United States have been
turned back on but I think it
will be crucial in the days
ahead that these troops can stay
connected as they're making
gains in the south.
>> You mentioned that peace plan
that musk floated that got a
frosty reception from the
Ukrainians.
I think it's fair to say it's
often hard to determine musk's
motivations.
Is there a connection, do you
think, between that sort of
failed trial balloon and what
he's saying now?
>> I think it's hard to know and
I definitely wouldn't want to
speculate.
There are definitely some people
we're talking to who thinks
that's the case.
Others have pointed to what musk
said, he fears escalation and
wants to avoid a quiter war.
Obviously musk is tweeting a lot
about what he's doing and his
intentions and we're talking to
others in touch with him and
trying to figure out what's
going on there.
>> Felicia Schwartz of the
financial times, thank you very
much.
>> Thanks for having me.