Overnight World Report · October 18, 2026, 12:40 AM CDT
Key Facts
- Marco Rubio says Trump’s Russian oil sanctions waiver is a ’60-day pause,’ denies restricting Starlink access (via The Kyiv Independent)
Marco Rubio says Trump’s Russian oil sanctions waiver is a ’60-day pause,’ denies restricting Starlink access.
Speaking with reporters on Oct. 18, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio detailed U.S. President Donald Trump waiving sanctions on the sale of Russian oil and addressed issues surrounding Ukraine’s access to Starlink services.
When asked to respond to criticisms of Trump waiving sanctions that restrict the sale of Russian oil, Rubio said the waiver was a temporary measure to study the policy’s impact on the global economy.
“I think the President wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyze what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the U.S. economy,” said Rubio.
Noting high energy prices around the world as a result of the U.S’s war with Iran and the global need for oil, Rubio said that “we need that period of time to sort of study all this and figure out what the right combination is.”
The Secretary’s comments come following widespread outcries that Trump’s move will create a windfall for Moscow, helping it continue attacking and killing Ukrainians.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a way to stop (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. On the contrary, he feels joy that he has such support,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said about Trump’s actions amid a falling out between the two leaders.
Rubio also addressed rumors that the U.S. had a role in limiting Ukrainian access to vital Starlink systems.[1]
Video: Al Jazeera English, October 17, 2026 — “Trump denies limiting Ukraine’s Starlink access as tensions with Zelenskyy grow”. Matched to this story by shared names and terms in its title; watch the original for full context.
How to Verify This Yourself
Read the original reporting directly at The Kyiv Independent — that page is the primary source for everything above.
References
- The Kyiv Independent. Marco Rubio says Trump’s Russian oil sanctions waiver is a ’60-day pause,’ denies restricting Starlink access. ↩
Investigative methodology: this update was produced by scripts/topic_news_roundup.py from real The Kyiv Independent reporting — not a language model. The quoted text above is verbatim from the source, cited; no analysis or interpretation is added.
File photo: ISS059-E-119331 – View of Iran — Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center, 2019. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. This image is illustrative and does not depict the people or events in this report.
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