Rubio said Ukraine "would not exist" without U.S. aid

Ukraine would not have survived as a sovereign state without the support of the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters this during a visit to India, Bloomberg reports.

"If it were not for the assistance of the United States, including under the administration of [President Donald] Trump, Ukraine simply would not exist now. Ukraine as a sovereign state would not exist," Rubio noted, responding to a request to comment on a publication by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about Elon Musk's decision to restrict the operation of the Starlink satellite system in Ukraine.

The secretary of state emphasized that the United States cannot control the decisions of private companies regarding their products, and rejected claims that American authorities were involved in restricting Starlink's operation.

"We are not going to apologize for this anymore," Rubio added.

SpaceX's Starlink satellite system is used by the Ukrainian military to provide communications and control drones. In March 2025, Elon Musk called Starlink "the backbone of the Ukrainian army" and stated that without it the front line of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would collapse.

On October 20, 2026, The Wall Street Journal, citing American officials and sources familiar with the situation, reported that Musk personally ordered the suspension of the military version of the Starlink satellite system — Starshield — in Ukraine. According to the newspaper, Musk and Trump discussed this decision by telephone.

Earlier, in September 2022, Musk also gave an order to shut off Starlink coverage in some areas of Ukraine, including during the counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops. According to Reuters, this prevented the Ukrainian military from carrying out plans in the area of the Kherson region. In the same year, Musk refused to turn on satellite communications in the area of Crimea to support an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Russian fleet.

Source: RBC