US billionaire Elon Musk reveals the amount of money he has donated to Ukraine

Tỷ phú Mỹ Elon Musk tiết lộ số tiền đã hỗ trợ Ukraine - 1 — Billionaire Elon Musk (Photo: Guinness).

On April 23, in an exchange with writer Stephen King on social media, billionaire Elon Musk announced that he had supported Ukraine with 100 million USD in the conflict with Russia.

Last year, the CEOs of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter brought the Starlink satellite internet system to Ukraine.

When Mr King suggested that Mr Musk donate a portion of the revenue generated from Twitter’s new paid verification model to Ukraine, the American billionaire responded: “I donated $100 million to Ukraine, how much have you donated?”

Mr Musk also retweeted an October 2022 message from Ukraine's technology minister Mikhail Federov, in which he thanked the SpaceX CEO for delivering Starlink to Ukraine, which he described as "extremely important".

By the end of last year, Ukraine had received about 22,000 Starlink antennas since the beginning of the war, and SpaceX plans to deliver thousands more terminals to Kiev.

Starlink played a key role in the war in Ukraine, as the Russian military destroyed its opponents' communications systems.

Starlink enables the Ukrainian military to have a reliable and robust communications system. Ukrainian servicemen use these systems to coordinate counterattack missions or request artillery support. Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians use Starlink to stay in touch with loved ones at home and abroad.

Mr. Musk's contribution is important because in modern warfare, with stronger opponents, having a strong communications satellite network is considered a strategic "weapon".

Russia, meanwhile, believes Starlink is a legitimate target, arguing that the US and its allies have been using “elements of civil space infrastructure, including commercial, for military purposes.”

However, Mr Musk's relationship with Ukraine became strained in October 2022, after the American billionaire suggested that, to end the conflict, Ukraine should accept Russia's Crimean peninsula and agree to neutrality. Mr Musk's statement immediately met with criticism from Kiev.

In October last year, Mr. Musk caused a public uproar when Starlink's parent company, SpaceX, warned the Pentagon that it could no longer fully pay for satellite internet service in Ukraine. SpaceX also called on the United States to pay for this.

Musk warned that he would stop providing financial support for the Starlink satellite internet system in Ukraine. At the time, he said his company SpaceX had spent hundreds of millions of dollars providing internet to Ukraine over the past several months. Then, Musk abruptly changed his mind, saying that SpaceX would continue to help Ukraine.

In November 2022, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olha Stefanishyna said that Starlink's satellite internet access points were a "sign of life" for struggling Ukrainians, but billionaire Elon Musk's unpredictable personality was forcing Ukraine to look for alternatives to these devices.

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