Musk, in one of his typical philanthropical gestures, donated 20,000 Starlink low earth orbit (LEO) satellite terminals to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in February.

The Starlink LEO satellites orbit the Earth at an average altitude of just 550km, compared to the 36,000km of geosynchronous communications satellites, and because of their relative closeness they are able to receive and transmit with faster speeds and much lower latency.

While most of the cost of the SpaceX terminals was funded by the US, UK and Polish governments, as well as NGOs and private fundraisers, it costs SpaceX about US$4,500 per terminal each month - US$90 million per month in total - to provide the Starlink service.

The Ukraine reportedly uses Starlink as a vital service for many of its military operations, providing internet connections on the battlefield and the country now considers it part of its critical infrastructure.

In fact, Kiev has become so reliant on Starlink that it asked SpaceX for 8,000 more Starlink terminals in July, in a letter penned by Ukrainian general, Valery Zaluzhny.

However, no matter how worthy the cause, corporate philanthropy will only go so far when shareholders are concerned, especially when the major shareholder has other serious financial considerations on his plate.

With Musk now committed to spending US$44 billion for his Twitter acquisition, it appears that his company SpaceX is no longer prepared to pay the beleaguered war torn country's not inconsiderable ongoing internet bills incurred by the Starlink service.

According to news sources, in a letter to the US Pentagon last month, SpaceX claimed that the Ukraine Starlink service will cost more than US$120 for the remainder of 2022 and $400 million over the next 12 months.

That US$400 million estimate may even be on the low side as simple maths suggests that at US$90 million per month, the figure would likely be closer to US$1 billion - and that doesn't include the additional 8,000 terminals requested.

An outside consultant for SpaceX has written that, “I do not think they have the financial ability to provide any additional terminals or service as requested by General Zaluzhny.”

To date, it is not known if the Pentagon has responded to the request for funding the Ukraine Starlink service from SpaceX.

However, according to the US government's own figures, "since 2014, the US has provided more than US$19.6 billion in security assistance for training and equipment to help Ukraine preserve its territorial integrity, secure its borders, and improve interoperability with NATO."

UPDATE 16 Oct 2022: Since this story went live, Elon Musk has now reversed his decision to stop SpaceX funding Starlink in Ukraine.

The following is a tweet posted by Musk on his Twitter account today: