Rubio says Musk, not White House, decided to slow Starlink for Ukraine

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that decisions over Ukraine's access to the Starlink satellite network lie with operator SpaceX and its chief executive, Elon Musk, not the US government, speaking to reporters during a visit to India. His comments pointed to Musk having limited the service for Kyiv on his own initiative, a shift from the administration's earlier line, Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported.

The Wall Street Journal had reported on Tuesday that Musk ordered a slowdown of a military version of Starlink that Ukraine relies on to counter Russian missile attacks, and that he had discussed the move beforehand with President Donald Trump and White House officials. "I don't know if we knew about this decision in advance. But that's beside the point," Rubio said, according to Die Presse. "Ultimately, this is governed by a private commercial contract, over how their equipment may be used and what speeds are permitted."

Reuters had separately reported, citing two US officials and a Western source, that the White House itself was behind the decision, a view Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared and the US administration rejected. Trump had said neither he nor Musk was behind the slowdown. Rubio said on Saturday that nobody had ordered a slowdown and that there was no intent behind it.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also described the episode on Tuesday as a purely commercial matter, saying usage terms exist that must ultimately be respected and that Starlink is free to make its own decisions under them. Confusion has persisted over the difference between the civilian Starlink service and Starshield, the military version SpaceX built for the Pentagon: Rubio said Ukraine never had access to Starshield, while Zelensky has said both services were disrupted in Ukraine.

Rubio also said on Wednesday that talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Zelensky in Oslo had been positive, and that Witkoff was travelling on to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to share the ideas discussed. "It was positive, nothing unexpected, nothing surprising. Now, armed with these ideas, he can go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side," Rubio said, according to Portuguese outlet Observador.