The US government reportedly paid to send Starlink terminals to Ukraine

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge

According to a report from The Washington Post, the government paid millions of dollars for equipment and transportation in order to send Starlink terminals to Ukraine. According to the report, the US Agency for International Development paid around $2 million for 1,333 terminals. The number of terminals that the agency bought from the company was disclosed in a press release, but has since been altered to remove mention of the purchase.

According to space reporter Joey Roulette, the company donated 3,667 terminals to Ukraine, which is worth around $10 million. It is possible that this donation was subsidized by the US Agency for International Development. The Washington Post says it's not clear whether Ukraine received standard or advanced terminals, which cost $2,500 and $600, respectively.

Looks like USAID edited their press release and deleted the value of SpaceX's donation, as well as the number of terminals the agency said SpaceX provided on its own dime. Here's the previous version vs. current version: https://t.co/ws1urZu4VM pic.twitter.com/1eZxfQ6DPA

— Joey Roulette (@joroulette) April 6, 2022

A recent report said that the terminals cost around $1,000 to build, and that if the US Agency for International Development purchased regular terminals, it would pay $900 over retail cost per unit. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556

According to the Washington Post, the agency agreed to pay more than $800,000 for the transportation of 5,000 terminals that were sent to Ukraine through a public-private partnership.

In February, the vice prime minister of Ukraine posted a picture of a truck filled with Starlink terminals, days after he asked for help. The Washington Post's report doesn't say if these terminals were sent solely by SpaceX, but it does say that the US Agency for International Development bought 175 Starlink terminals as part of a separate agreement.

It looks like the company made a donation. The delivery of Starlink terminals were made possible by a range of stakeholders, whose combined contributions valued over fifteen million dollars, according to a statement from the US Agency for International Development. The company appears to have gotten a lot of public funding for the project.