Rubio says Ukraine without access to Starshield, future ‘under discussion’

US secretary of state says Ukraine has requested access to military-grade version of Starlink for strikes deep inside Russia.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, October 17, 2026 [Kylie Cooper/Pool via Reuters]

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Starshield , the military-grade version of the Starlink satellite service, is currently unavailable to Ukraine, but a request from Kyiv to access the system for attacks deep inside Russia is “under discussion”.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Rubio stressed Starshield’s distinction with Starlink, the internet service provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

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list 2 of 3 What is Starshield, and who limited Ukraine’s access to it?

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“Starlink is a commercial product, okay? And so it’s regulated and handled as a commercial product. Starshield is a defence product, a military product,” said Rubio, in comments released by the Department of State.

“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,” he added. “That’s under conversation.”

Launched in 2022 and provided to the US government, Starshield is designed for military use as it allows for deeper encryption to process sensitive information. SpaceX says it is primarily used by US defence agencies and other “government partners”.

Last week, Ukrainian officials said restrictions on Starlink terminals had slowed some drones on the battlefield, as Ukraine tries to hold back Russian forces in their nearly five-year war.

In his comments at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Rubio also rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion that the reported disruption to Starlink services in Ukraine on Wednesday was deliberate.

“Well, I don’t know what Zelenskyy said. I’m not sure Zelenskyy knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate. We have nothing to do with that,” Rubio said.

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the satellites are not tracking antennas on flying objects travelling faster than 161 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour). This is affecting Ukrainian drones in their defence against Russian jet-powered drones and in their own medium-range attacks, he added.

Rubio said the US had not ordered Starlink speeds to be reduced and that the service had reportedly been restored to its previous level.

“No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down internet or slow down speed so that certain drones couldn’t use it,” he said, calling the reports “categorically false”.

The remarks came as US President Donald Trump drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans after waiving sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its oil and gas, days before the restrictions were due to take effect under a law he signed last month.

Zelenskyy also criticised the sanctions waiver on Saturday, saying easing pressure on Russia would encourage further attacks.

“Financial rewards for [President Vladimir] Putin – all of this only encourages him to keep attacking,” Zelenskyy posted on social media, urging the US to maintain pressure on Moscow.

美国国务卿表示，乌克兰已请求使用军用级星链系统，用于对俄罗斯境内纵深目标进行打击。

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥于2026年10月17日在美国马里兰州安德鲁斯联合基地向记者发表讲话。[Kylie Cooper/Pool via Reuters]

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥表示，星盾（Starshield，星链卫星服务的军用版本）目前对乌克兰不可用，但基辅方面提出的访问该系统以对俄罗斯境内发动攻击的请求“正在讨论中”。

周六，鲁比奥在接受记者采访时强调了 Starshield 与埃隆·马斯克的 SpaceX 提供的互联网服务 Starlink 的区别。

乌克兰人担心随着俄罗斯空袭加剧，美国情报部门会削减经费（共3条，第1条）

列表 2（共 3 题）：什么是 Starshield？是谁限制了乌克兰获得 Starshield 的权利？

乌克兰和欧洲别无选择，只能与特朗普合作（共3条）。

“星链是商业产品，明白吗？所以它按照商业产品的标准进行监管和管理。星盾是国防产品，是军用产品，”鲁比奥在国务院发布的声明中说道。

“他们要求获得使用该系统的权限，以便对俄罗斯境内目标进行纵深打击。目前他们还没有获得权限，”他补充道。“此事正在商讨中。”

Starshield于2022年发射，并交付给美国政府。该软件专为军事用途设计，能够对敏感信息进行更深层次的加密处理。SpaceX表示，它主要供美国国防机构和其他“政府合作伙伴”使用。

上周，乌克兰官员表示，对星链终端的限制减缓了战场上一些无人机的飞行速度，乌克兰正努力在近五年的战争中阻挡俄罗斯军队。

鲁比奥在马里兰州安德鲁斯联合基地发表讲话时，还驳斥了乌克兰总统泽连斯基的说法，即周三乌克兰境内星链服务中断是人为造成的。

“嗯，我不知道泽连斯基说了什么。我不确定泽连斯基是否清楚自己在说什么，但这并非故意的。这与我们无关，”鲁比奥说道。

泽连斯基周六表示，卫星无法追踪飞行速度超过每小时161公里（100英里）的飞行物上的天线。他补充说，这影响了乌克兰无人机防御俄罗斯喷气式无人机以及执行中程攻击的能力。

鲁比奥表示，美国并未下令降低星链的速度，而且据报道该服务已恢复到之前的水平。

他说：“白宫没有人下令降低互联网速度，以阻止某些无人机使用互联网”，并称这些报道“完全是错误的”。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普发表上述言论之际，正值他上个月签署的一项法律生效前几天，他却宣布豁免对俄罗斯及其石油和天然气购买国的制裁，此举招致民主党人和共和党人的批评。

泽连斯基周六也批评了制裁豁免，称放松对俄罗斯的压力会鼓励进一步的袭击。

泽连斯基在社交媒体上发帖称：“给普京（总统弗拉基米尔·普京）的经济奖励——这一切只会鼓励他继续攻击”，并敦促美国继续向莫斯科施压。