GOP Lawmaker Calls For Investigation After Rubio Says Ukraine’s Starlink Slowdown ‘Sort Of Happened’

Republican Ohio Rep. Mike Turner said on Sunday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s explanation for Ukraine’s Starlink slowdown is not good enough.

When CBS News host Margaret Brennan asked on “Face the Nation” whether “it sort of happened” was a sufficient explanation, Turner, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said, “Absolutely not,” and called for a congressional investigation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine’s use of the SpaceX satellite network remains partially restricted, Axios reported.

“Secretary Rubio said no one at the White House ordered it to be slowed down this week so that drones couldn’t use it. But effectively, that was the outcome,” Brennan said before playing Rubio’s remarks.

Rubio said “nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened. But my understanding is it’s been restored.” He made the remarks Saturday evening before leaving on a trip to India, according to Axios.

“Absolutely not. I mean, this is something where there needs to be an investigation. There needs to be a congressional investigation,” Turner said.

The congressman added that weapons meant for Ukraine, funding and intelligence have broken down before, only for it to come out later that “unnamed people in the Pentagon perhaps break it.”

“We need to find out who these people are because lives are at risk and lives are lost over these things,” he said.

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Turner said reports from the Institute for the Study of War and from Zelenskyy suggest the service is “spotty,” restored in some areas and not in others.