Republican lawmakers are calling for an investigation into disruptions to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service used by Ukraine, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said nobody in the White House had ordered the slowdown and that it “sort of happened.”
Representative Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that Congress needed to establish what happened to technology relied on by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations.
“There needs to be an investigation. There needs to be a congressional investigation,” Turner told CBS News’ Face the Nation.
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota separately backed an investigation, adding that the disruption could have resulted from a technical problem rather than a deliberate decision.
The calls add to scrutiny over problems involving Starlink and Starshield, SpaceX’s military-focused system. Reuters reported Thursday, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, that the order to slow the Starshield service used by Ukraine came from inside the White House. The officials did not identify who made the decision.
A senior U.S. official told Reuters that “no such request was ever made by the president,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the instruction came from the U.S. government and was technically implemented by SpaceX.
Newsweek reached out to the White House on Sunday evening for comment.
Mike Turner Says ‘Lives Are at Risk’
Ukrainian officials began reporting difficulties with satellite connectivity last week as the restrictions began affecting military operations.
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Asked Sunday whether Rubio’s explanation for what happened was sufficient, Turner responded: “Absolutely not.”
“This is something where there needs to be an investigation. There needs to be a congressional investigation,” he said. “We need to find out who these people are.”
Turner added: “People’s lives are at risk, and lives are lost over these things.”
He said reports indicated connectivity had not been uniformly restored.
“There are areas where it’s restored, and there are areas where perhaps it is not,” Turner said, citing reporting from the Institute for the Study of War and comments from Zelensky.
“This is essential to the United States’ support of Ukraine in defending real aggressive attacks by Russia within Ukraine,” Turner said. “And this needs to be restored.”
Cramer, who recently visited Ukraine and met with Zelensky, also backed an inquiry when he appeared separately on Face the Nation.
“I certainly support investigating, you know, what was the source of that decision, if, in fact, it was a decision at all,” Cramer said. “It may very well have been some sort of a technical glitch. I don’t know for sure or whose call it was.”
Cramer said Congress “could and should investigate,” while emphasizing that his immediate priority was restoring the capability and expanding Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian launch facilities.
Starlink and Starshield Dispute Deepens
Starlink is SpaceX’s commercial satellite internet service, while Starshield is a SpaceX business that develops military and intelligence satellite systems for the Pentagon, Reuters reported. Starshield’s secure communications services use enhanced encryption and dedicated terminals but rely on the vast Starlink satellite constellation as their backbone.
The restriction, which AP reported was imposed without warning, cuts the internet data connection when a communications terminal moves faster than 160 kph, or 100 mph. Ukrainian forces use Starshield-equipped interceptor drones at speeds above that threshold to pursue Russia’s jet-powered Shahed drones, while the cap also affects Ukrainian helicopters used to hunt drones.
SpaceX fixed communications outages that emerged after the restriction was introduced, but the 100-mph cap remained, Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to Zelensky, told the AP. Reuters separately reported, citing a person in Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, that the receivers had resumed working while in motion but only at speeds of up to 100 mph.
Rubio said Saturday that Ukraine does not currently have access to Starshield, although Kyiv has requested it to carry out strikes deeper inside Russia.
“I know Ukraine wants access to Starshield. They do not have Starshield now,” Rubio said. “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.”
But Turner described the status of Starshield differently on Sunday while discussing Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
“The policy decision has been made that Starshield will be utilized for the purposes of Ukraine defending itself against Russian aggression,” Turner said, specifying that he was talking about Ukraine’s defense “within its territory.”
The competing descriptions underscore the uncertainty surrounding Ukraine’s access. Rubio said Ukraine “does not have Starshield now,” while Turner said a policy decision had been made for Starshield to be used for Ukraine’s defense.
Reuters and the Associated Press, meanwhile, have reported that Ukrainian forces were using a Starshield service whose operations were affected by the speed restriction.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government and has drawn a distinction between Starshield and commercial Starlink.
Musk said Starlink is a commercial service controlled by SpaceX and limited to civilian or defensive uses, while Starshield systems are controlled by the U.S. government. He said limits on Starshield speed or usage were decided by the U.S. military and ultimately the president.
Marco Rubio Says Nobody Ordered Starlink Slowdown
Rubio denied Saturday that the White House directed the reported slowdown.
“We had nothing to do with that,” he said.
“No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down internet or slow down speeds so that certain drones couldn’t use it,” Rubio said.
He added: “Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored. It’s back to where it was before.”
Reuters reported Thursday that the order to slow Starshield came from inside the White House, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. The officials did not identify who made the decision. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that “no such request was ever made by the president,” while the White House did not answer whether another administration official might have made the request.
Turner, meanwhile, rejected Rubio’s explanation of the disruption as insufficient Sunday.
Zelensky offered a starkly different account Sunday, saying the restriction was the result of a U.S. government decision.
“It’s limited because it’s a decision,” Zelensky told NBC News’ Meet the Press. Asked who was responsible, he said: “The message came from government. I don't know from whom, what cabinet, and et cetera.”
“It was a message from American government to limit the speed. And technically, SpaceX did it,” Zelensky said.
He said the restriction remained in place and appealed for it to be lifted: “Just give us back Starlink.”
Beskrestnov told the AP in an interview published Friday that Ukraine was in “active negotiations” with the Pentagon, SpaceX and the U.S. government over the restriction.
“And right now, we don’t know what the decision will be,” he said.
Beskrestnov said Ukraine viewed the issue as extending beyond technology and business.
“But we now understand that this is not only a technical issue and not only a business issue, but also a political one,” he said. “How this will develop, who will make this decision, who influences these decisions, we can only guess.”
The dispute has been especially sensitive because Ukrainian forces have used satellite connectivity extensively for drones, while Washington has been pressuring Kyiv over attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
Senators Seek Pentagon Probe as Trump Pressures Ukraine
Turner and Cramer are not the first lawmakers to seek answers.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina raised the possibility that the restrictions resulted from a deliberate decision in a post on X Wednesday.
“At best, this was an unacceptable error or lapse, and at worst a [conscious] decision to clear the field for a Russian attack,” he wrote.
A bipartisan group of nine senators wrote to the Pentagon’s inspector general last week requesting an investigation into “whether actions or decisions by the Department of Defense or its contractors contributed to these dangerous circumstances.”
The lawmakers included Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire leading the group.
“Any restrictions on these capabilities, particularly without advance notification, raise serious questions about the Department of Defense’s contractual oversight and its responsibility to ensure continuity of essential services,” the senators wrote.
The controversy comes amid a broader confrontation between President Donald Trump and Zelensky over Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has targeted Russian oil and gas facilities in an effort to curb energy revenue used to finance Moscow’s war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukrainian refinery attacks have cost Russia roughly 1 percent of its gross domestic product.
Russia has meanwhile continued targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Trump has pressured Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil facilities as high diesel prices remain an issue in the United States ahead of the midterm elections. In Newsweek’s earlier reporting, Trump blamed Ukraine’s attacks for contributing to those prices, while his administration moved to allow Russian diesel back onto global markets and relaxed sanctions to authorize imports into the United States.
Beskrestnov told the AP that the affected Starshield service was not used on Russian territory and did not provide service to Ukrainian drones used to attack Russian oil refineries.
Against that backdrop, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, previously told Newsweek that if the satellite restrictions were designed to force Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries, it would amount to an attempt to pressure Kyiv that endangered Ukrainian troops. He did not establish that this was the reason for the restrictions.