US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed security in the Black Sea and ongoing efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the war between Russia and Ukraine. The conversation also included the upcoming meeting of NATO foreign ministers in December, the State Department said.
The conversation came amid diplomatic contacts between Washington, Kiev and Moscow. Russia said on October 21 that it was ready to resume trilateral talks with the US and Ukraine in November. According to the Kremlin, the talks should also cover the future security system in Europe and the region after the end of the war.
Senators asked SpaceX for correspondence on Starshield
Meanwhile, Senators Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons asked SpaceX to explain the restrictions on Ukraine's access to Starlink and the Starshield military system. In a letter to the company, they demanded to understand whether the restrictions were imposed unilaterally by SpaceX and what the role of the US government was.
The lawmakers also requested all correspondence between SpaceX and US federal institutions related to the restriction of Ukrainian access to Starshield. They also raised questions about whether the actions were consistent with contracts between the company and the US government.
According to the senators, the restrictions affected communications used by Ukrainian drones, as well as fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. These are terminals where a speed threshold of 100 miles per hour, or about 160 kilometers per hour, was introduced.
“Nobody ordered Starlink's speed to be reduced,“ Rubio said.His statement contradicts the claims of Ukrainian officials and information about restrictions on military communications. Elon Musk, for his part, has stated that Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, and decisions on restrictions are made by the US military and ultimately by the president.
Senate investigation
On October 22, Blumenthal announced a separate Senate investigation into the way Ukraine's access to Starlink and Starshield was restricted, as well as the US Department of Defense's dependence on SpaceX for key satellite communications.
Ukraine has been in talks with SpaceX and the Pentagon to lift the restrictions. So far, there has been no public announcement that the company or the US government has taken responsibility for the specific decision that led to the service being restricted.
Sources: apnews.com, miragenews.com