Starlink turns out not to be so charitable with ‘free’ dishes Ukraine

Starlink gave Ukraine thousands of free internet dishes, but behind the scenes it turned out that only the sun came up for nothing.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk gave hundreds of free Starlink dishes to the stricken country. This free internet seemed like a wonderful charitable act, but according to The Washington Post, the place stinks. Not Elon Musk, but the American taxpayer has provided Ukraine with free internet dishes.

Starlink does not give ‘free’ internet to Ukraine

In the media, Musk made the Starlink donation appear as a charitable act. Somehow that’s right. More than 5,000 satellite dishes were sent to Ukraine, allowing residents to stay connected to the internet.

1500 of those dishes, on the other hand, turned out to have been purchased by the United States Agency for International Development. This government agency paid an estimated $1,500 per dish, making a total of $2.25 million for the free internet. On top of that will be an additional $800,000 for the transportation of the Starlijnk dishes to Ukraine.

Now the average American will not worry about the tax donation of 0.9 cents per person. The total amount is negligible given that the country has almost 330 million inhabitants.

What is bad is the fact that Starlink and the US government have been making deals about the charity behind the scenes. As a government, you must be transparent with regard to expenditure. As a private company, it’s not nice to pretend to be charitable when you’re just getting paid behind the scenes.

Nevertheless, residents in Ukraine will not grumble about Starlink’s lack of transparency. The country has enough on its mind already. And fortunately, the total lack of internet is not covered by this for the time being!