Rubio says Witkoff-Zelensky talks were ‘positive’ as US envoy heads to Russia for Ukraine peace push

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday (Oct 21) that talks between American envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo had been “positive”. The statement comes as Witkoff heads to Russia for further discussions. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested meeting US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss an end to the Ukraine war. He said that the meeting can take place with or without Zelensky. Rubio also said that the White House had no prior knowledge of a slowdown in Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite communications used by Ukraine to support battlefield operations.

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"It was positive, nothing unexpected, nothing surprising, and he'll now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to Saint Petersburg and share them with the Russian side -- and let's see if we can make some progress," Rubio said, while talking to reporters in India. But Rubio acknowledged the difficulties in ending Russia's four-year-old war in Ukraine. "These things are complex, and if this was an easy war to solve, it would have been solved a long time ago," he said. About Starlink connection in Ukraine, he said, “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk.”

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According to a Reuters report quoting unnamed US officials, Musk allegedly ordered a slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukrainian forces, triggering alarm in Kyiv and confusion within the Trump administration. The report also claimed that Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call shortly after the slowdown became public, while the president was campaigning last week. One of those individuals also claimed that the two discussed the issue before the restrictions were imposed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly warned that lives could be lost if unrestricted Starlink access was not restored. Amid the confusion, the report mentioned that SpaceX representatives contacted White House officials to seek a common understanding of the decision and develop a unified public message.