Marco Rubio: Elon Musk Decides Ukraine’s Access to Starlink, Not the White House

Ukraine’s access to Starlink is up to SpaceX and Elon Musk, not the White House, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Musk ordered the slowdown ​of a military-grade version of Starlink that Ukraine uses to wage war with Russia.

The newspaper cited sources who claimed that Musk had been discussing Ukraine with President Donald Trump and other White House officials around the time of the slowdown. The White House, however, has denied ordering such restrictions.

“I’m not ​aware that we knew about this decision beforehand,” Rubio told reporters during a trip to India, according to a report by Reuters.

“But that’s irrelevant,” Rubio added. “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.”

While Reuters cited two U.S. officials who claimed the decision came from the White House, the Wall Street Journal — also citing U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter — reported it was actually Musk who ordered the slowdown, which then caused confusion inside the Trump administration.

Last week, Musk limited the speeds at which Ukrainian equipment could remain connected to the satellite network, effectively rendering some offensive and interceptor drones useless, sources told the newspaper.

On Saturday, Rubio also said no one ordered the Starlink slowdown, and that it has since been restored, Reuters reported.

“I’m not sure Zelenskyy knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t ​deliberate,” the U.S. Secretary of State said in reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserting it was the White House that implemented the slowdown.

“We have nothing to ⁠do with that. Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down,” Rubio added. “It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters, “There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to, and that’s where Starlink has the option to make those decisions.”

Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.