Rubio Says Ukraine’s Starlink Access Is Up to SpaceX, Not White House

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that decisions regarding Ukraine’s access to Starlink were the responsibility of SpaceX and its chief executive, Elon Musk, rather than the White House, amid reports that Kyiv’s access to the satellite communications service had been restricted.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk had ordered a slowdown of Starshield, a military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukraine in its defence against Russian missile and drone attacks.

Citing one source, the newspaper reported that Musk, President Donald Trump and White House officials had discussed the matter beforehand. Two other sources said Musk and Trump discussed the issue in the days following the slowdown.

“I’m not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand. But that’s irrelevant,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to India.

“The bottom line is that that is governed by a private commercial contract as to how their stuff can be used and what speeds they’ll allow it to be used at,” he added.

Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

Asked on Wednesday whether Musk had ordered the slowdown, Trump told reporters: “I don’t know who did it, but I was not involved.”

Reuters, citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, reported that the decision ultimately came from the White House. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also made that claim, which the Trump administration has denied.

Rubio’s latest remarks are likely to deepen concerns in Washington about Musk’s influence over US foreign policy and appear to mark a shift in the administration’s position.

Trump has previously said that neither he nor Musk was responsible for the slowdown. Before departing for Uzbekistan and India on Saturday, Rubio said nobody had ordered the service to be slowed, drawing criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

“I’m not sure Zelensky knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate,” Rubio said at the time.

“We have nothing to do with that. I don’t — the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored,” he added.

Senate Democrats Warn of Risks to US Delegation

A Senate Democratic aide said the Starshield slowdown, which occurred during a bipartisan US congressional delegation’s visit to Kyiv from October 13 to 16, had put American lawmakers and staff at risk, along with approximately 230 US personnel on the ground.

According to the aide, Russia was increasingly deploying jet-powered versions of Shahed drones capable of travelling at 280 miles per hour (450 kilometres per hour) or faster, requiring Ukraine to use faster defensive drones to intercept them effectively.

“It’s a basic math problem. If you have a 280-mph object coming toward you, you are not going to be able to counter it with something that goes 100 mph,” the aide said.

The aide added that Kyiv had lost a significant number of air assets on the first night of the slowdown.

Disruptions to US data transmission and delays in security assistance had also affected the ability of drones to protect congressional delegation members and staff as they travelled to designated shelters, the aide said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also characterised the Starlink restrictions as a commercial matter. However, no US official has publicly confirmed that Washington pressured SpaceX to reverse any restrictions.

“There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to, and that’s where Starlink has the option to make those decisions,” Hegseth said.

Confusion Over Starlink and Starshield

A key source of uncertainty concerns the distinction between SpaceX’s Starlink and Starshield services.

Starlink is a satellite communications network that provides internet connectivity, while Starshield is a military-focused system developed for government and national security applications, including for the Pentagon.

Rubio suggested on Saturday that Ukraine had never been granted access to Starshield. Zelensky, however, has said that both Starlink and Starshield services in Ukraine had experienced disruptions.

The conflicting accounts have raised questions about the nature of the restrictions, who authorised them and the extent to which private satellite providers can influence Ukraine’s military communications during its war with Russia.