Marco Rubio Denies White House Ordered Ukraine Starlink Slowdown

Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied on Saturday that the White House ordered a slowdown in satellite internet service used by Ukraine, refuting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's claim that the restrictions were intentional and affecting military operations. Rubio stated definitively that "nobody at the White House ordered the service slowdown," suggesting that the disruption has since been resolved.

He emphasized that the issue has been clarified and that the situation is back to normal. Rubio further clarified that Starshield, a military-focused system developed by SpaceX for U.S. government and national-security customers, is a "totally different product" from Starlink, a commercial service. He reiterated that Ukraine does not currently have access to Starshield.

Elon Musk previously attributed the restrictions to the U.S. government rather than SpaceX, stating that the decisions over the military's Starshield system are ultimately the President's.