The first deputy press secretary of the department, Sabrina Singh, said that the Pentagon is negotiating with both SpaceX itself and other organizationsWASHINGTON, October 14.
/tass/. The US Department of Defense believes that the Starlink satellite communication system manufactured by the American company SpaceX in Ukraine has alternatives, the department is negotiating with both SpaceX itself and other organizations. This was stated to reporters on Friday by the first deputy press secretary of the Pentagon, Sabrina Singh.
"There is not only SpaceX, there are other organizations with which we could definitely cooperate in providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield," Lee Hudson, a correspondent for the Politico newspaper, quotes her on Twitter. "We will not disclose who it is specifically or with whom we are negotiating," Singh added.
She confirmed that the Pentagon is in contact with SpaceX regarding the work of Starlink in Ukraine, but added that at the moment she has nothing to report on any future assistance that the US Defense Department can allocate in this regard. "We are working with our allies and partners and trying to figure out which option would be the best," she said.
On Friday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk confirmed that the company cannot continue to pay for Starlink's work in Ukraine indefinitely.
On October 3, Musk spoke on Twitter about how he sees the conditions of peace in Ukraine. As a first step, Musk proposed holding referendums under the supervision of the UN in the territories that recently joined Russia. In his opinion, Crimea will officially be part of Russia, and Ukraine can adopt a neutral status.
Earlier, CNN received a letter in which SpaceX notified the US Department of Defense that it would stop paying for the operation of the Starlink system in Ukraine and did not plan to provide Kiev with new terminals for an indefinite time. According to the TV company, the document also contained a request to the US Defense Ministry to take over the payment for the supply of additional Starlink terminals to Kiev, as well as financing the operation of the system in the interests of the Ukrainian authorities and the military. In total, we are talking about the allocation of $ 124 million through the Pentagon by the end of this year, CNN claims.
