Starlink access in Ukraine a decision for Musk, not White House, Rubio says

By Gram Slattery

MUMBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that decisions regarding Ukraine's access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and Elon Musk, not the White House, comments that suggested Musk may have restricted Kyiv's access to the service.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk had ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink that ​Ukraine relies on to defend itself against missile attacks from Russia.

The Journal cited one person saying that SpaceX CEO Musk, President Donald Trump and White House officials discussed the matter beforehand, and two people saying that Musk and the president discussed the matter in the days after the slowdown.

"I'm not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand. But that's irrelevant," Rubio told reporters during a trip 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." Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump, asked by reporters on Wednesday whether Musk ordered the slowdown, said: "I don't know who did it, but I was not involved."

Reuters has cited two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter saying the decision ultimately came from the White House. This version was also asserted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but denied by the administration.

Rubio's comments are likely to intensify concerns in Washington regarding Musk's ability to influence US foreign policy. They also represent an apparent shift in position for the administration.

Trump has previously said publicly he believed neither he nor Musk was behind the slowdown. Departing for a trip to Uzbekistan and India on Saturday, Rubio had said no one ordered the slowdown, an assertion that drew criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

"I'm not sure Zelenskiy 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," Rubio said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth also portrayed the Starlink cutoff as a commercial matter. No US official has publicly said, however, that they have pushed SpaceX to reverse any cutoffs.

"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.

One significant point of confusion relates to the difference between SpaceX's Starshield and Starlink products. Starshield is essentially a military-grade version of Starlink developed for the Pentagon.

Rubio suggested on Saturday that Ukraine never had access to Starshield in the first place, while Zelenskiy has said that both Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine have been disrupted.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson and Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Stephen Coates, Philippa Fletcher, Rod Nickel)