Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was positive and that Witkoff would share the results with Russia. Rubio also reiterated that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv’s ability to access SpaceX’s Starlink, a satellite system vital to Ukraine’s war effort, contradicting reports that the U.S. government had a role in slowing the service for the Ukrainian military. Zelenskyy traveled to Oslo to meet Witkoff on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks to repair ties with the U.S. amid tensions over U.S. military support, intelligence sharing and Ukraine’s access to the military version of Starlink.
Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Rubio told reporters in Mumbai during a visit to India that nothing surprising came out of Witkoff’s talks with the Ukrainian leader. “He will now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St. Petersburg and share them with the Russian side, and let’s see if we can make some progress,” he said. On Starlink, he said: “What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States, nor anyone in our system, ever requested that any changes to that system be made.” “We cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or do not make,” he added.
