Starlink decisions rest with Musk: Rubio

Washington US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that decisions concerning Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite services rested with SpaceX and its chief executive, Elon Musk, rather than the White House, intensifying questions over whether the billionaire restricted Kyiv's military communications during its war with Russia. Rubio made the remarks while travelling in India, following a report by The Wall Street Journal that Musk had ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukraine to defend against Russian missile attacks. Musk, US President Donald Trump and White House officials had discussed the matter beforehand, citing one source. Two other sources said Musk and Trump discussed it in the days following the slowdown. “I'm not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand. But that's irrelevant,” Rubio told reporters. He argued that the service was governed by a private commercial agreement determining how the technology could be used and the speeds permitted. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. However, Reuters has cited two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter as saying the decision ultimately came from the White House. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also made that claim, which the administration has denied. Rubio's latest comments appear to mark a shift in the administration's public position and could heighten concerns about Musk's ability to influence American foreign policy through his control of a critical communications network.