Elon Musk says SpaceX has withdrawn Pentagon funding request for Starlink internet in Ukraine

• Elon Musk said SpaceX has "already withdrawn its request for funding" over Starlink in Ukraine.
• The company reportedly asked the Pentagon to cover the cost of its satellite internet service in Ukraine.

Elon Musk said SpaceX has "already withdrawn its request for funding" after the company reportedly asked the Pentagon to cover the cost of its Starlink internet service in Ukraine.

According to documents obtained by CNN and published on Friday, SpaceX wrote to the Pentagon in September saying that the company may not be able to afford to keep funding the satellite internet service in the country.

Musk added in a follow-up tweet that out of the 25,300 terminals that have been sent to Ukraine, only 10,630 are paying for service.

Representatives for SpaceX did not immediately respond to Insider's request for confirmation on the funding request withdrawal, which was made outside normal working hours.

The Department of Defense referred Insider to SpaceX, but also provided a briefing by a senior military official. According to the briefing, the department had been in communication with SpaceX but had not paid it any funds in support of Starlink for Ukraine.

The European Union is reportedly considering footing the bill for the service if SpaceX does pull its funding, per Politico.

Starlink has proved useful to the Ukrainian war effort, according to some military figures. Some officials, however, have expressed concerns about what will happen if the billionaire stops covering the cost.

Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, suggested in an interview with Politico that Ukraine's internet connection should not be dependent on one "super-powerful" person who could "wake up one day and say, 'This is no longer what I feel like doing and this is it.'"

"Ukrainians might find themselves without the internet," he added.

Musk previously said that sending Starlink terminals to Ukraine had been costly for the company. Reacting on Twitter to a report by The Financial Times, Musk said funding Starlink had already cost SpaceX $80 million and would exceed $100 million by the end of the year.

Musk said SpaceX was still losing money in a tweet posted on October 15.