Ukraine wants to start using Musk’s Starlink to target ballistic-missile launchers inside Russia. During closed-door talks at the White House on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky laid out a plan for his country to survive another winter of war with Russia. For it to work, President Trump would need to call in a big favor from his ally Elon Musk. But according to two officials familiar with the conversation, Trump was noncommittal, leaving the future of the plan in doubt. The new proposal, which has not been previously reported, offered the United States a way around sending Ukraine advanced air-defense missiles, known as Patriot interceptors, which the war in Iran has dramatically depleted. Instead, Ukraine would expand its use of another American technology: the Starlink satellite-communications network, which Musk controls. Zelensky asked Trump to secu…

Starlink offers the most precise means available to steer Ukrainian drones to the Russian missile launchers, many of which are mounted on trucks dispersed across Russia. During his visit to the U.S. this week, Zelensky asked to meet with Musk to talk about his plan for targeting these launchers, but the billionaire declined the invitation, according to one person involved in the discussions. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. When they met at the White House, Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart that he would consider the requests, but he did not indicate whether he would eventually grant them, one official told told us. Trump did tell Zelensky that he would talk with Musk about it but did not offer a timetable for that conversation or for his eventual decision. Trump has made no secret of his desire to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a clos…