Rubio Says Ukraine Does Not Have Access To Starshield
At the same time, he said Ukraine currently does not have access to the Starshield system.
According to Rubio, Starlink is a commercial product, while Starshield is a defense and military product.
"I mean that that [Starshield] is something that the United States military uses. It's not at this moment available to Ukraine and that's under conversation. It's under discussion right now how they would want to use it," he said.
Read also: Ukraine loses ability to use Starlink to shoot down jet-powered Shaheds – ZelenskyRubio denied that the United States was involved in reducing Starlink's operating speed in Ukraine.
"We had nothing to do with it. Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened. But my understanding is it's [Starlink's operating speed] been restored. It's back to where it was before. So that's Starlink though. They were using Starlink for their drones," he said.
Asked about restoring Starshield's operation, Rubio replied that the system was a separate product and had nothing to do with Ukraine.
"Starshield is a totally different product. Starshield is a contract with the U.S. military. It had nothing to do with Ukraine. I know Ukraine wants access to Starshield. They do not have Starshield now. They've asked for access to it in order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia. They do not have access to it at this moment," Rubio said.
As Ukrinform reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Starlink's operation in Ukraine was being restricted to speeds of 161 km/h, making it impossible to use the system on interceptor drones designed to take down jet-powered Shahed drones.
Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in the United States, Denys Sienik, said Ukraine was awaiting an official response from the Pentagon and SpaceX regarding the full restoration of the Starshield satellite system's operation, adding that its performance remained unstable.
According to The Telegraph, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was the one who approached U.S. President Donald Trump with a proposal to restrict Starlink's operating speed in Ukraine.
Photo: Official State Department
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the
information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept
any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images,
videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information
contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright
issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Comments
No comment