U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted on Sunday that Ukraine’s war effort against Russia would have collapsed without Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by SpaceX.
Rubio made the statement while refuting claims that the U.S. had threatened to cut Ukraine off from the service. His remarks were in response to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who highlighted Poland’s $50 million annual contribution to providing Starlink for Ukraine and questioned the reliability of SpaceX as a provider.
“The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression aside, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” Sikorski wrote on X.
Rubio dismissed any claims of threats to Ukraine’s access to Starlink and urged Sikorski to acknowledge its impact. “Just making things up. No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” he stated.
“And say thank you, because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago, and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.”
The comments come amid concerns over the dependence of Ukraine’s military operations on Starlink, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently warning that Ukraine’s entire frontline defense could collapse if the service were to be turned off.
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