Rubio defends US support for Ukraine amid Starlink slowdown furor
What's new: Rubio denied the White House knew in advance about the reported Starlink slowdown as a US envoy headed to Russia for talks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back on criticism of the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy, saying on Oct. 21 that Ukraine “would not exist” as a sovereign state without US aid. Speaking in Mumbai, Rubio also denied that President Donald Trump or the White House had advance knowledge of a reported slowdown in SpaceX’s Starlink service used by Ukraine’s military. Rubio said Washington did not direct the move and could not control a private company’s product. The remarks came after a Wall Street Journal report linked Elon Musk to the slowdown. At the same time, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff traveled from Oslo to St. Petersburg for talks with President Vladimir Putin as the US presses for a negotiated end to the war.