Rubio comments on Trump's link to the Starlink service disruptions in Ukraine

- US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that US President Donald Trump "had nothing to do" with the severe disruptions witnessed by the Internet service "Starlink" in Ukraine last week, and that the White House had no prior knowledge of this occurrence. Rubio told reporters in India, during a visit to the region: “The President had no role in the decisions taken by Starlink and Starshield, Mr. Elon Musk; this is a private company..

I am not aware of any prior knowledge of the matter,” stressing that “at no time did Trump say: ‘Deprive them of using this system because I want to punish them or teach them a lesson.’” Last week, Ukraine accused SpaceX, the company owned by Elon Musk, of suddenly restricting the “Starlink” Internet service, which is the service that Ukraine uses - along with “StarShield”, which is a service of a military nature - to secure fast communications, as well as to carry out attacks with drones. Or respond to similar attacks.

Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Elon Musk have pointed to the Trump administration; The American billionaire confirmed that the “Starshield” system is “owned and controlled by the American government” under a military contract. For its part, the Trump administration denied any involvement in this matter.

Speaking to the press, Rubio expressed his dissatisfaction with the repeated questions on this topic, saying: “We will no longer be defensive on this issue, is that understood?... Without the assistance provided by the United States - including during the Trump administration - Ukraine would not exist today.”

He highlighted the regional dispute that represents the core of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in light of the Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine give up the eastern Donbass region, and Kiev’s categorical rejection of this concession. The Trump administration had previously put forward peace proposals that included Ukraine giving up its territory.

“Right now the fighting is really focused on what the situation will be in the rest of the Donbas region, so I think some innovative ideas have been put forward about how to resolve this dispute,” Rubio said. Steve Witkoff, Trump's foreign affairs envoy, discussed some of these ideas - along with other security guarantees for Ukraine - with President Zelensky during a meeting in Norway on Tuesday.

Rubio indicated that his impression was that that meeting was “positive.”